1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:07,640 And that speaker is and panellist is Mr. Jonathan Smith, former commissioner of police, who now works in the private sector, 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:15,480 is a former Progressive Labour Party senator and junior minister of national security, and he's served on numerous government boards. 3 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:20,670 He holds a diploma in criminology and police studies from the University of Cambridge in the UK. 4 00:00:20,670 --> 00:00:32,490 And his latest book, Ireland Flames, focuses on Bermuda's 1977 race riots, which were the most extensive and deadly riots ever experienced in Bermuda. 5 00:00:32,490 --> 00:00:36,540 Mr. Jonathan Smith. It's a real honour to be part of this panel tonight, 6 00:00:36,540 --> 00:00:43,920 but I do recognise that I'm somewhat exceptional in my company because everyone here has actually completed a book. 7 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:50,690 And this might be the very first occasion where Oxford University have accepted a book for their library that no one's even read yet. 8 00:00:50,690 --> 00:00:55,470 The lecture Before you go back to England next month, I can give you the book cover. You like to take that? 9 00:00:55,470 --> 00:01:02,490 Take that with you. The book will be available in Bermuda in about mid mid-October, I'm pleased to say. 10 00:01:02,490 --> 00:01:05,230 There's three parts to my presentation this evening. 11 00:01:05,230 --> 00:01:10,530 The first one deals with nineteen seventy seven and how much we were on the brink of a catastrophe. 12 00:01:10,530 --> 00:01:16,050 The second part is and ask the question why would this be of interest to a researcher? 13 00:01:16,050 --> 00:01:20,680 And then the third part of my presentation is what did the research find? 14 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:27,160 The first part, 1977 was very different from today, Bermuda was on the brink of a catastrophe. 15 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:33,100 There were significant societal problems. Bermuda did not have a healthy diagnosis at that time. 16 00:01:33,100 --> 00:01:39,730 There was a legacy of racial discrimination and unfair electoral system that some say was gerrymandered. 17 00:01:39,730 --> 00:01:45,820 There was discrimination at all levels, particularly in the economy, a clear black and white divide. 18 00:01:45,820 --> 00:01:47,110 And then by the end of the year, 19 00:01:47,110 --> 00:01:58,160 the pending executions of burrows and tackling two black men for the murders of five white men raised the tension significantly. 20 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:03,620 What the problems, what's significant about 1977, though, the problems, as we've heard from the other speakers tonight, 21 00:02:03,620 --> 00:02:13,190 the problems went back centuries and I believe it goes back to the very first parliament and 16 20 and who voted back then all male, 22 00:02:13,190 --> 00:02:22,760 all white or landowners. And believe it or not, you have to then fast forward to the nineteen sixty eight constitution 348 years later. 23 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:26,420 In that time, whites had an advantage with the property vote. 24 00:02:26,420 --> 00:02:37,440 It took 348 three hundred forty eight years to finally dispense with that property vote by virtue of the 1968 constitution. 25 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:42,930 In many ways, 1977 was the perfect storm for unrest. 26 00:02:42,930 --> 00:02:47,370 There were many, many ingredients to it. There was a growing mood of violence. 27 00:02:47,370 --> 00:02:54,300 There had been riots in 1965, 1968, 1970 and 1971. 28 00:02:54,300 --> 00:03:03,300 We were not too far removed at that time from the very influential to the black community, the BlackBerry, a cadre of the early 1970s. 29 00:03:03,300 --> 00:03:08,520 There were many unresolved political, social, racial and economic issues. 30 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:12,210 There was rising tension, almost exclusively tied to race. 31 00:03:12,210 --> 00:03:18,870 The convictions and death sentences of barriers and tackling loomed large by the end of the year. 32 00:03:18,870 --> 00:03:22,690 There was a colonial regime, but its which itself had become a target. 33 00:03:22,690 --> 00:03:30,150 Remember, the governor was the very first, I'm sorry, the second to be assassinated after the British police commissioner. 34 00:03:30,150 --> 00:03:38,580 And then there was this classic leadership contrast at the time, the Ulip leader at the time, Sir David Gibbons White viewed as privileged, 35 00:03:38,580 --> 00:03:44,100 contrasted with the female black leader of the opposition Progressive Labour Party, 36 00:03:44,100 --> 00:03:50,790 Lois Brown evidence you had this divide on the ground and also divide in parliament as well. 37 00:03:50,790 --> 00:03:57,750 The death penalty itself was enormously contentious in 1977, and there was an anti capital punishment, 38 00:03:57,750 --> 00:04:02,370 apathy and capital punishment campaign organised mostly by blacks, 39 00:04:02,370 --> 00:04:09,330 supported mostly by blacks and seen to run contrary to the wishes of the white establishment at that time. 40 00:04:09,330 --> 00:04:17,370 So all those issues and many more converged in 1977, and as two successive royal commissions found, 41 00:04:17,370 --> 00:04:24,670 race was at the centre of everything in dispute in nineteen sixty eight and nineteen seventy seven. 42 00:04:24,670 --> 00:04:30,790 So why was this period of interest? It's a period of enormous historical significance. 43 00:04:30,790 --> 00:04:36,160 I argue in my book that it was the closest Bermuda ever came to a revolution. 44 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:40,240 The commission is arguably the most significant commission report into the affairs of 45 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:46,900 Bermuda in the prior 50 years when it was written and in the near 40 years since. 46 00:04:46,900 --> 00:04:53,920 There was also political intrigue the progressive Labour Party was fresh off the success relative success of the 1976 elections, 47 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:58,630 where they picked up some seats and then further by election in 1976. 48 00:04:58,630 --> 00:05:05,250 So you had this rising black awareness and rising black political power at the same time. 49 00:05:05,250 --> 00:05:09,990 From a personal perspective, I had a rather unique perspective, I wasn't in the police in 1977, 50 00:05:09,990 --> 00:05:16,170 but I joined a few years later and my affinity towards criminal investigations of which I spent most 51 00:05:16,170 --> 00:05:24,700 of my career was a launching pad for me to enquire into why what happened in Bermuda in 1977 happened. 52 00:05:24,700 --> 00:05:29,680 So the historical and political significance, the middle being close to a revolution. 53 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:39,040 My own police background combined to make it a very intriguing period to research, and nobody had ever written about this period before. 54 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:46,940 So what did the research find? Island flames, we used to gather information from many, many sources, most of it public. 55 00:05:46,940 --> 00:05:54,950 But the real gold mine was contained in the UK National Archives, where the files had been held from public view for 30 years. 56 00:05:54,950 --> 00:05:59,930 And there are some very surprising finds in the book about the context of who was 57 00:05:59,930 --> 00:06:04,490 saying what publicly and how that contrasted with what they were saying in private. 58 00:06:04,490 --> 00:06:09,050 Some enormous contrasts which will come out in the book. 59 00:06:09,050 --> 00:06:15,350 The period is also steeped in all the socio economic, cultural and political upheaval that I've described. 60 00:06:15,350 --> 00:06:23,690 Significantly, these were the executions of burrows and tackling were the last hangings on British soil anywhere in the world. 61 00:06:23,690 --> 00:06:32,220 So that's the historical significance of why Bermuda was at the centre focus of world attention in 1977. 62 00:06:32,220 --> 00:06:38,010 It's also an area that was extremely violent. There were 10 lives lost in total. 63 00:06:38,010 --> 00:06:49,480 Two of them killed by the state. The confrontation, the outrage, the political brinkmanship, the protests, the petitions, the riots, 64 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:54,820 people were killed in the riots and millions of dollars worth of property were destroyed, 65 00:06:54,820 --> 00:07:03,900 and quite simply, it was an error that the commission later found blacks by 1977 December 2nd had clearly had enough. 66 00:07:03,900 --> 00:07:07,180 There are some similarities between seventy seven with nineteen sixty eight, 67 00:07:07,180 --> 00:07:12,360 and if I could just quote very quickly from the witting commission, which kind of sums up that era, 68 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:17,700 the corrosive psychological effects of racial inequality and segregation affected 69 00:07:17,700 --> 00:07:24,820 both segments of society and were at the heart of the problem from you to faced. 70 00:07:24,820 --> 00:07:31,030 Interestingly, the United Bermuda Party's own Black Caucus described themselves in 1975. 71 00:07:31,030 --> 00:07:35,500 This is their description of themselves as used black people. 72 00:07:35,500 --> 00:07:41,230 They describe the black experience as exploitive and dehumanising. 73 00:07:41,230 --> 00:07:49,330 The UK military intelligence officer in Bermuda only for six days in December 1977 described it as such. 74 00:07:49,330 --> 00:07:56,050 The hard fact is that it has been clearly demonstrated to blacks that the white Bermudian still retains the veto. 75 00:07:56,050 --> 00:08:02,380 Whatever the strength of black opinion, there is still a long way to go to racial equality. 76 00:08:02,380 --> 00:08:07,210 That report was buried in one of the FCO files. 77 00:08:07,210 --> 00:08:16,750 It was not commented on by anybody else, even though it was the truth at the time it ran contrary to FCO views in 1977. 78 00:08:16,750 --> 00:08:24,490 But perhaps the 17 words that best define the problem were from Lois Brown, Evans herself and I quote, 79 00:08:24,490 --> 00:08:37,110 we have swept a backlog of sociological, economic and political inequities under a manicured facade to fester 17 extremely powerful words. 80 00:08:37,110 --> 00:08:45,090 1977, so what I describe as a significant expression of black conscience. 81 00:08:45,090 --> 00:08:50,430 Black voices and black protests, and you only need to reflect back on that era. 82 00:08:50,430 --> 00:08:57,000 Every single significant black group in Bermuda had something to say against capital punishment and 83 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:02,400 against what the establishment was doing from the Amy churches to the Ministerial Association, 84 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:06,780 to the working men's clubs, to the Progressive Labour Party, to the bayou, 85 00:09:06,780 --> 00:09:13,860 to the little community of Islam, we're unanimous against the hangings at that time. 86 00:09:13,860 --> 00:09:20,640 But as I articulated in the book, the events of 1977 should never be viewed in isolation. 87 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:25,260 There are many common themes of protests, some of which we've heard here tonight. 88 00:09:25,260 --> 00:09:32,680 And if you were to categorise the five, the five main themes the book sets out that they were, 89 00:09:32,680 --> 00:09:37,800 that they were these across decades and decades of conflict, race, 90 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:43,230 economic opportunity and immigration policy, which favoured whites and others over blacks, 91 00:09:43,230 --> 00:09:49,110 the education system and the results of the education system and the franchise. 92 00:09:49,110 --> 00:09:54,690 The electoral system. And an argument can be made that over those five issues, 93 00:09:54,690 --> 00:10:02,400 the only ones substantively dealt with with results is the actual franchise system in and three. 94 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:11,030 There are still huge question marks over the equality of from UTA and the results we're getting in those other four areas. 95 00:10:11,030 --> 00:10:20,240 So I'll conclude with this. The book paints a snapshot of 1977, but it reflects back, but it also reflects Ford. 96 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:26,360 I would like to acknowledge Quidel Reilly, whose presence here tonight, his former government statistician, 97 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:35,900 and he was invited to contribute one chapter in the book to provide that analysis of what's changed since 1977 and what might still be the same. 98 00:10:35,900 --> 00:10:39,950 So I invite you for no other purpose. Don't read what I said, Cordell said. 99 00:10:39,950 --> 00:10:49,720 Because he has he's got real letters of the alphabet after his name. There are many revelations and. 100 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:55,250 I can conclude in the final minute with just summarise them what they are. 101 00:10:55,250 --> 00:10:58,880 A few of the interesting points that people did not know at the time, 102 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:06,200 the governor and the security services were caught off guard by the scope and scale of the riots, it's very clear from the memos. 103 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:11,230 The US Marines, not known at the time, were on a shoot to kill order. 104 00:11:11,230 --> 00:11:19,120 The US Marines used to be down on the base. The UK troops that came here were also on a shoot to kill order if they were under threat. 105 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:27,670 That's how serious it was. The cabinet was split on several issues concerning the death penalty and the executions and 106 00:11:27,670 --> 00:11:31,660 whether it should have been debated in parliament in that final week to stay the stay, 107 00:11:31,660 --> 00:11:37,070 the executions. There was confusion, disagreement, misinformation, 108 00:11:37,070 --> 00:11:44,570 miscommunication over many of the legal and policy implications of the executions, even to this day, 109 00:11:44,570 --> 00:11:52,790 there are documented differences between Dr. David Owen, who's still alive and who contributed to my book and what Sir Peter Ramsbottom said. 110 00:11:52,790 --> 00:12:02,810 They had a huge falling out over the 1977 events, and much of that has not been known to the public, and it was papered over at the time. 111 00:12:02,810 --> 00:12:09,860 They were very intriguing files, so very intriguing findings from the UK files, which were kept out of public view for 30 years, 112 00:12:09,860 --> 00:12:14,480 but obviously because of the legislation now the files were opened and it was just, 113 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:17,810 like I said, a gold mine for a former detective to come along, 114 00:12:17,810 --> 00:12:23,800 and they didn't expect me to find what they wrote and penned in their taxes 30 years ago. 115 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:27,144 Thanks very much.