A list of former British colonies for which administrative files were to be released was published by the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office earlier this year.
However, the Cayman Islands wasn’t on it.
The foreign office list of 38 countries, which includes a few current overseas territories such as Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands, sets release dates for what are termed “colonial administration files”. The first batch of those files was released in April; all of the records are expected to be made public by November 2013.
Head of the Cayman Islands Governor’s Office Steve Moore checked on the status of any Cayman Islands-related files following a request by the Caymanian Compass. Mr. Moore said he asked the foreign office team working on the release of the administrative documents whether colonial files related to the West Indies Federation or Jamaica included information about Cayman. The Cayman Islands were a dependency of Jamaica, which itself was a British colony before it gained independence in 1962.
“Among the Jamaica files, which are still being reviewed, there were a number of files relating to the Cayman Islands, during the period when they were administered from Jamaica,” Mr. Moore said. “The Jamaica files are scheduled to be released to the National Archive in September.”
What information that release will contain that is Cayman-specific was unclear.
“The West Indies Federation files have not yet been reviewed, but following [the Compass] request a cursory check of the file lists was carried out,” Mr. Moore said. “From this, there does not appear to be any Cayman-specific papers [within the West Indies Federation files]. But please bear in mind that the file lists are not always 100 per cent accurate and the FCO will only have complete and accurate knowledge of their holdings once the files have been catalogued.”
The issue regarding British colonial administration documents became an international issue in January 2011, following a court case brought by four Kenyan nationals who were involved in the Mau Mau rebellion during the 1950s.
In the case, the government was forced to admit that 8,800 files were secretly sent to Britain from the colonies, prior to their independence.
Shocking details
The administrative files released in April by the UK foreign office cover a period generally between the 1930s and the 1970s, during which time the records had been transferred to the UK.
The archive contains documents from Aden, Anguilla, Bahamas, Basutoland [Lesotho], Bechuanaland [Botswana], the British Indian Ocean Territories, Brunei, Cyprus, Kenya, Malaya, Sarawak and the Seychelles.
The British were instructed to keep papers that might embarrass the UK government. In both Kenya and the UK there were references to certain materials being destroyed.
Some of the revelations from the first batch of colonial administration papers include, according to published reports:
Detailed accounts of the UK policy of seizing livestock from Kenyans who supported the Mau Mau rebels in the 1950s;
Secret plans to deport a Greek Cypriot leader to the Seychelles;
Efforts to deport Chagos Islanders from the British Indian Ocean Territories;
And concerns over the “anti-American” and “anti-white” tendency of Kenyan students sent to study in the US in 1959.
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That last statement of release And concerns over the anti- American and anti-white tendency of Kenyan students sent to study in the US in l959!
Something is seriously wrong with this statement of release. It is simply ‘NOT TRUE
l959 racism and segregation was an epidemic worldwide especially in the US and Europe. All concerns in the 50’s and 60’s worldwide were involving the civil rights violation of blacks in the United States, how they were being killed, beaten, bombed, burned and segregated, racially discriminated against, and totally disenfranchised from their human rights as human beings.
Where did the FCO get this concocted information that it was the reverse! fear if Kenyan students anti- white tendencies studying in the US in l959?!
Yeah right….If this is true……….then Fidel must now be a Christian Democrat.
Pure UK false propaganda and absolute nonsense to coverup their own wrongdoing.
Cayman is getting our share of UK white Supremacy here in Cayman. Britain now a days is mainly brown skinned people where are the black UK police? why don’t they send them to Cayman? Afteral our roots and demographics are African and mixed origin. So why is there so much bias and prejudice in the ethnicity of police recruitment in sending us all white from the UK? Ah Hah! See what I mean?
And why do we need to go as far as Nigeria to bring police to this region. Nigeria the crime and money scam capital of the world, and we are scratching our heads wondering why crime has escalated in this region especially since the arrival of the new Commissioner of police?
The Cayman Islands need more Cayman Police and not so many with foreign police.It is unnecessary and very suspicious, Its bad for the country.
The real story here is that since about 1984 the UK has been telling the UN that the remaining colonies are no longer colonies and thus they should be removed from the UN list of non-self-governing territories. While in each of the colonies the UK is telling the people that the UK must maintain imperial powers because they are colonies.
When I was arguing for my right to privacy in 2012, they were asking, ‘What do you have to hide’. Well, I don’t have anything to hide, but history proves that the UK has much to hide. I believe this move is to prevent anymore shocking details of fact from being released. Tempura and who knows what else…
Well ranted, Liverpool.
Have you or any of your family been members of the Police Service?
If not, why not? You are so obviously public-spirited that I would have thought you’d be right up there in front.
I find it increasingly difficult to imagine why the UK hangs on to dependent territories.
As a matter of fact I did have members there as high up as Inspector of police. That’s a good many years ago, so if there’any plan to victimize any one of them, you may have to visit them for me speaking out at the cemetery! nicknames are no way of securing or protecting one’s identity in as forum.
Trust me, what’s done in the dark will be brought to light. You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time.
If the Pope’s butler can come public with a Tell All Book showcasing skeletons of the Vatican, then nothing is secret anymore. Someone will push the UK’s button and perhaps it will be too late for them to respond if at all.
Britain now a days is mainly brown skinned people – sorry Liverpool but the UK is 83.6% white.
Why should Cayman’s colonial files be released ?
Cayman is still a British colony..or British Overseas Territory, as they are now called.
Whoever can’t see that Britain…and Cayman’s local government still has a lot to hide…and is still hiding it…
Must be totally blind to all the current and recent scandals that have taken place in Cayman…and the British Govt’s efforts to cover them up.
As long as Cayman remains a colony, things will stay that way.
Hi Firey,
can you confirm if WWW’s statement is true or false?
regardless of the answer, race is an issue with Cayman Islands RCIP recruitment habits.
We have had enough of this abuse. If the UK police are here to protect the governor’s interest, say so, but he’s not the only person here who needs protection, 3 persons missing and no criminal case of murder presented to the courts is most troubling and speaks volumes that something is seriously wrong with our RCIP and what is the real mission of its leadership that all too often is leading to a dead end where high profile murder cases are concerned. Something is very fishy here. Corrupt is corrupt, and it does not respect the color of the skin. Corruption stinks in the Cayman Islands.
A Police Authority that does not answer to them needs to be formed ASAP the Comm of police must answer to someone else besides the governor who seems to be always in his corner whether he’s right or wrong, so we can no longer trust Ceasar to investigate or prosecute Ceasar we need an independent body to watch dog the RCIP and its comissioner. Case closed!
BaBaBoom
That statistic is more or less correct but the truth is, England is becoming more of a mixed race population at a very rapid pace; that statistic will soon be a thing of the past, although the white population will still remain in the greater majority.
The editors seemed not to have liked my comments on a topic closely related to this one…the passing of a law allowing surveillance of Cayman’s private communication without a judicial order… so they have not published them but my views are somewhat similar to yours in that respect.
This is a very sensitive topic, as is the history of the colonial office from the days when Brittania ruled the world.
If you look at the history of Britain’s major colonies, they mostly had to free themselves of colonial rule through rebellion and bloodshed.
The rule of colonialism has always been exploitation of other countries natural and human resources by deception, and sometimes force.
There is no question in my mind about the FCO undermining the local Caymanian Govt. when it suits their purposes.