In response to Prince Edward and his wife Sophie’s recent visit to St Vincent, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves reminded that the last time Prince Charles visited the island, two issues were discussed. First, reparations, then scholarships.
Gonsalves said the scholarships have paid off, and on this occasion, he recommended that Deputy Prime Minister Montgomery Daniel converse on similar matters.
“Prince Edward is 14th in line to the throne. Prince Edward isn’t a person of any real consequence in these things. He’s a symbol, but he does have it in terms of a person with weight to address any of these things, and I’m talking as a practical man.”
“I called in when the Royals were in state and spoke to them for maybe 10 minutes, and raised reparations. I explicitly said to him that I have noticed that there was a demonstration concerning reparations and that this is a matter which I had raised before and am in the forefront with that”.
‘I told him I wanted him to take the matter seriously, and that he should discuss it with his brother, the Prince of Wales, as well as any other government official he comes into contact with, as I said, nobody would want to use the expression in relation to an individual who is biblically the least among the apostles’.
Gonsalves said he was not displeased to see that Vincentians had put up placards.
“In the weeks leading up to the visit, I got a call from the palace. The Governor-General had been contacted by officials, asking whether there were going to be any security issues in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, given what had happened in Jamaica and Belize. I said absolutely not”.
“I told the Governor-General to tell the palace that we are in an open democracy, and that people may demonstrate on this or that issue, but there’s no question about the safety of our visitors.”
According to Gonsalves, he advised the Governor-General to transmit to Buckingham that “I cannot tell you, and I would not want to tell you, that citizens would not raise issues by way of placards about reparations and colonialism in a democracy.”
In his radio interview with NBC, Gonsalves said that we don’t live in a dream world, and he was glad that the demonstrations took place without any disorder.