A Royal Commission goes to Fifth Company Village
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‘This is a record of the most significant meeting of a Franchise Commission and be considered a milestone on the road to Independence. Apart from being the first such meeting for Trinidad it is interesting for many reasons. The Chairman of the Royal Commission, Stephen Gatty, apparently does not know the facts of how the meeting came about but the question of the franchise began with Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee (as queen) in 1887. On jubilee day Pastor Robert Andrews went to San Fernando to see the celebrations, and he was so impressed that when he returned home to Fifth Company that night he wrote a letter to Queen Victoria telling her how grand the celebrations were, and how deeply and genuinely the people of Trinidad loved her. He then told her that the persons she had here doing her business lacked any sort of kindness and compassion, that they did nothing for anyone, that they were aloof and useless. He said there were not even roads in Fifth Company and when it rained his children could not go to school. And then he asked her: “Your Majesty, could you possibly see your way to give the people of Trinidad their own representatives. This request alarmed Queen Victoria and she got in touch with the governor of Trinidad, Sir William Robinson, asking him to appoint a Royal Commission to find out if the people of Trinidad wanted to have their own representatives. And she instructed the governor that during the enquiry the Commission must go to Fifth Company to take evidence and particularly to talk to Robert Andrews and find out what it was that he really wanted.
The Secretary of State for the Colonies must have simply formalized the procedure leaving out personal details.
The following is a verbatim report of the meeting in Fifth Company on March 4, 1888.
A Royal Commission goes to Fifth Company Village
Pastor Robert Andrews was among the 226 people sitting waiting when the Royal Commissioners walked into the little Baptist church. The place was Fifth Company village and the year was 1888. The Royal Commissioners had come down from Port-
Mr Robert Andrews sat quietly, but a little uneasily, for he was impatient. He had given up a whole day from his estate to come here. He had been told his name was first on the list of those to be called to give evidence before the commissioners and he hoped he would be called up quickly so that he would speak his mind and then leave.
By now the commissioners had all sat down and in front of them on the table were little cards saying who they were. The Chairman was S. H. Gatty, the Attorney-
Mr Gatty’s voice brought him back to the moment and he leaned forward to hear. Mr Gatty said: “This is a meeting of the Royal Commission to enquire into the franchise and the electoral districts of the country. It is held here in the country and we wish to meet the people in the country who have signed the petition. We had better proceed to work at once…What we are here to do is to enquire into the political intelligence of the community, and we want to ask those of this neighbourhood who have signed the petition what they really expect from it, why they think a change in the constitution and government of the country would be better than the present state. Also I want to ask them generally their views on the political future of the island.”
Pastor Andrews was one of the villagers who had signed the petition and not only had he signed the petition but he had also signed for a number of other people. His main concerns was roads. The roads in Fifth Company was atrocious. The village was like a wilderness, cut off from civilization because the dirt track that led to it was bad even in the dry season, and utterly useless in the wet. Inside the village there was nothing that could be properly called a road.
He hoped that this Royal Commission had not come to waste his time and that he would see an improvement soon. For the villagers depended on selling their produce for a livelihood and they could not get their produce out of the village when the rains fell. At such times the produce stayed on the estate and rotted. He felt strongly that these people from England and their offsprings who ran this country did not have the interest of the poor people at heart. They had at heart the interest of the planters and the large cocoa proprietors but not the laboring masses. In his opinion the only solution was for the people to have their own representatives. It was only in that way that the people would get what they wanted.
The Chairman, after making his opening remarks, was looking through his list of names. After a while he said, “We should like to start taking the evidence of witnesses. Let us begin at the beginning. Perhaps that will be better. Is Robert Andrews here?”
Mr Andrews rose.
“Mr Andrews, you may sit down if you like. How long have you lived in the neighbourhood? Were you born here?”
“Yes, I was born here and lived here all my life.”
The Chairman was surprised at the clear strong voice. He asked, “How old are you?”
“Sixty-
“You look good for sixty-
“Oh, yes Sir.”
“How far back was that? Was it in squatting times, after Emancipation in 1838? You know at that time lots of slaves walked off the estates and came and squatted on lands all over the country?”
“I don’t know much about that. Fifth Company and the rest of the Company villages all sprang up in 1816. That was when Governor Woodford brought the black American soldiers down here. They had fought in some sort of war up there. Admiral Cochrane was the man who brought them down and the governor brought them here and they cleared away some trees and formed the Company Villages. We here belonged to the fifth company that came down.”
The Commissioners talked together and the chairman said, “Where did you get this history from, Mr Andrews?”
“From my parents.”
“Your parents were among them?”
“Yes, my father was an ex-
One of the commissioners asked, “What about this road that brought us here. The Government made it then?”
“This road used to be an Amerindian track leading to the sea at Moruga. It was an Indian walk and they call part of the place Indian Walk. Not the Indians from India but the Amerindians.”
“So the Government did not make roads?”
“Not a single road. We ourselves cut all these tracks in the bushes.”
The Chairman said, “Now Mr Andrews, I understand everybody is complaining about roads. I know this main road is awful because the commissioners reached here only through the grace of God. Although we used animals. So I am not pretending that the road is better than anywhere else. But you know what we are here for. You signed a petition that was sent to the Secretary of States and that petition asked for a change of government — or rather, a change in the system of government. The Secretary of State wrote to Governor Robinson asking him to appoint a Commission to find out what exactly the people want. Now I have this petition with me and we have all the names of the people who signed. There are quite a few from Fifth Company, so I thought instead of inviting so many of you to make this difficult journey to Port-
“Yes, Sir.”
“So you will tell the Commission exactly what you want.”
Mr Andrews scratched his grey hairs and said, “When I was approached to sign this petition…”
“Who approached you?”
“A man from Mission.”
“Do you know who he is?”
“No. He was taking round the petition. He…”
“Okay. Don’t bother, Mr Andrews. We’ll find out who he is. Go on, please.”
And this verbatim, report of the meeting at Fifth Company of the first Commission on Franchise will go on in the next issue.
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