Dear Editor,
In reference to your editorial of Oct 24 captioned “Ashes of the past” you would remember that at the time of the Abrahams family tragedy the plan x 13 was in full operation. It was also a time when the police, the civil service, the fire service etc were all anti the PPP government so you will understand the kind of situation we were in then.
What you failed to mention in the editorial was why Anne Abraham was charged for sedition and that the then Premier Cheddi Jagan brought an English expert to examine and find the cause of the Abrahams fire.
Yours faithfully,
WP George
Editor’s note
The charge that was brought against Ms Anne Abraham in August 1963 concerned allegations that she conspired to commit seditious libel by publishing that Her Majesty’s Government of British Guiana had received certain sums of money by mail order transfers through Barclay’s Bank from the Ministry of Education in Moscow [USSR]. The charges were withdrawn in 1964.
After the start of the preliminary enquiry, four other persons – Mr Peter d’Aguiar, member of the Legislative Assembly; Ms Anne Jardim, member of the Senate; Mr Winston Rodrigues, a clerk of Barclay’s Bank; and Mr Christopher Nascimento, general manager of the Daily Chronicle newspaper – were summoned for a similar offence.
The Mirror newspaper reported that, in giving evidence before the coroner Mr Ralph Morris with regard to the Hadfield Street fire, Henry Walls of New Scotland Yard said “We have been unable to come to any specific conclusion as to the precise cause of the fire.” The local fire and crime chiefs disagreed.
