The Amandala
Sirs,

Allow me to comment on the excerpt taken from Larry Vernon's paper on political parties in Belize. I believe the full paper was published about two years ago in Amandala. I wish to say that there was one sentence and I quote, "that Nicholas Pollard conducted a campaign of slander against leaders of the PUP." I wish to say that the statement is completely out of context. The statement would lead readers to believe that Pollard went berserk and publicly slandered leaders of the People's United Party. Vernon failed to inform his readers that a bitter feud exploded in July of 1956 when Goldson, Richardson and Herman Jex took a missing monies case to the GWU Executive at Liberty Hall, where they all conspired to expel Pollard.

Following Pollard's expulsion, Pollard, with Price's support, countered with a vicious attack on all three who had been elected in the 1954 adult suffrage elections. My reason for exposing this distorted information is because Vernon is listed in Godfrey Smith's list of acknowledgements in his book on George Price. After reading Godfrey's chapter on the "Struggle for Leadership," I found it somewhat obnoxious that he chose to use the words "nasty campaign" twice and "slander" in only one paragraph on page 132 to describe Pollard's attack on his adversaries. Godfrey uses the "Richardson/Goldson Declaration" of September 27th, 1956 to elaborate on the "Struggle for Leadership"; the Declaration was to have been read that night at the Riverside Hall by the PUP Party Chairman, Lloyd Coffin, when they were stopped by the Pollard/Price faction and ousted from the building.

Also in his chapter, "The Struggle for Leadership", Godfrey mildly cites attacks that Price made on the rostrum against the Goldson and Richardson faction. However, as a historian myself, what I find very significant is that Godfrey and Vernon both failed to expose from the "Declaration" that Goldson and Richardson, who had themselves been accused of getting "gifts" from the Guatemalan government, accused Price of his secret "activities" with Guatemala. This is significant because both men were questioned along with Price about their activities in Guatemala in 1954 at the Reginald Sharpe Inquiry. Back then only those three would have known about each other's activities with Guatemala.

I think it is time to publish the full text of the September 27th, 1956 Declaration of Goldson and Richardson so the people of Belize can better understand the 1956 split.

Nick Pollard, Jr.

Amandala