August 18, 1961: British Refuse to Take Action against Guyana Politician

In response to a letter sent by US Secretary of State Dean Rusk (see August 11, 1961), British Foreign Minister Lord Home writes: “[N]ow the choice before us in situations like this is either to allow the normal process of democracy and progress towards self-government to go ahead and do our best to win the confidence of the elected leaders, and to wean them away from any dangerous tendencies, or else to revert to what we call ‘Crown Colony rule.’ It is practical politics to take the latter course only when it is quite clear that a territory is heading for disaster. We have done this once already in British Guiana-in 1953. But since the restoration of the democratic process in 1957, the elected government has behaved reasonably well and we have had no grounds which would justify a second attempt to put the clock back.” [United Kingdom, 8/18/1961]