Honourable Prime Minister and Honourable Ministers of Government, our host, Honourable Elvin Nimrod, Senators, Members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps, Rev. Clergy, esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am under constraint as per my invitation that I should make brief remarks. This is out of character for me, loquacious and expansive as I am usually, especially when speaking in the constituency to which I belong—Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Accordingly, I will govern myself by the three be’s—be brief, be bright and begone. Furthermore, I am taking the advice of a speech professor viz, when you are asked to speak all that is necessary is a good beginning and a good ending, but the closer the ending is to the beginning, the better your remarks.

First of all, let me say how pleased I am to participate in this ceremony, dedicating the tourism information centre and the memorial to two intellectual, political and legislative giants of the tri-island State of Grenada generally, but of Carriacou and Petite Martinique in particular—Frederick Bridgewater Paterson and Herbert Augustus Blaize, both of beloved memory and affectionately known as FB and HA respectively.

Although they did not live in the age of information and communication explosion, who would doubt that they were among the best information and communication advocates and exponents of their time.

They served as a link between the past and the present in keeping with the new concept of a Society for All Ages. And here let me say that we cannot appreciate the present without a knowledge of the past if we hope to attain the future. Furthermore, the Russian proverb puts it best—“dwell on the past and you lose one eye, forget the past and you lose both eyes.” And indeed we have the affirmation of the immortal William Shakespeare—“What is past is prologue.” We are simply continuing what these two giants began.

It is for this reason that I salute and congratulate the member of Parliament for Carriacou and Petite Martinique, the Minister for Carriacou and Petite Martinique Affairs, who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Legal Affairs et al, the Honourable Elvin Nimrod, for his vision in making this historical event possible with the ardent support and cooperation of Prime Minister, Dr. the Honourable Keith C. Mitchell. Esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen, what we are doing here today will long be noted and lovingly be remembered as a very important part of the history of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

For this and for his many other substantial and obvious contributions to the consistency, I want, as one of the oldest active Grenadians, to give a ringing endorsement to the re-election of the successor to Paterson and Blaize, the Honourable Elvin Nimrod.

Let me now attempt to place in good historical and chronological sequence the political and legislative contributions of our two patricians—Paterson and Blaize, separated by an intergenerational gap of many years. Let us not forget however, that they contributed each according to what prevailed legislatively and socially in his particular period.

Let us take as a starting point the year 1924, long, long before members of this youth administration were born. There was a significant constitutional change in the crown colony system of government in Grenada, whereby five clustered constituencies were created, followed by general election in 1925:

St. George’s North including the Town to which T. Albert Marryshow was elected
St. John’s and St. Marks to which D.A. McIntyre was elected
St. Patrick’s and Carriacou to which Fitz Henry Copeland was elected
St. Andrew’s to which Charles H.W.G. Lucas was elected

St. David’s and South St. George’s to which Charles F.P. Renwick was elected.
In the general election of 1931, only T.A. Marryshow was re-elected. All the others lost their seats. So enter Fred Bridgewater Paterson as the member of the Legislative Council for St. Patrick’s and Carriacou. In 1937 Carricaou was however, separated from St. Patrick’s, and FB continued as the elected representative until 1951 when he was defeated by another son of the soil, Dr. Cyril St.Bernard Sylvester, a retired education officer who died not too long after, and was succeeded by his wife Eva Sylvester from Petite Martinique.

In 1954, Hon. Fred Paterson was returned as the member of Carriacou/Petite Martinique, having defeated Blaize, McIntosh and Mrs. Sylvester. But in 1957 Blaize won the Carriacou/Petite Martinique seat from Paterson and held it without interruption, except from the NJM hiatus, until he died in 1989. Both Hon. Fred Paterson and Hon. Herbert Blaize were outstanding representatives of the Carriacou/Petite Martinique constituency in their own rights but in different periods.

Paterson was considered the parliamentary scholar in the Legislative Council and the master of parliamentary procedure and oratory. With the help of T.A. Marryshow, Paterson moved a motion in the House on 15 May 1935, which was adopted, to increase the number of elected members from five to seven, thereby short-circuiting the power of the Governor, exercised with the support of the nominated members of the Council who were appointed by the Governor himself. This was a legislative victory, which curtailed the bumbledom exercised then, by the colonial governors.

Blaize who learned a lot from Paterson, came to office just at the time that Grenada, and the other Caribbean islands, were poised for political and constitutional advancement. Thus as crown colony government gave way to the Committee system, he was appointed the first head of Trade and Production Committee in December 1955. On 21 December 1959 a new constitutional provision was made to appoint a Chief Minister who was to be an elected member and who commanded the confidence of a majority of the elected members. Blaize fitted that slot, and was made Chief Minister of the tri-island State of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

On 3 March 1967 when Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines became States in Association with Great Britain, Blaize became the first Premier of Grenada, but in the election, which followed later that year, Mr. Gairy’s GULP won the election thus making him (Gairy) second Premier of the tri-island State, a position he kept until he lead Grenada into independence and became the first Prime Minister of the tri-island State on 7 February 1974. A tumultuous period followed which eventually led to the overthrow of Sir Eric on 13 March 1979 by the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG), headed by Maurice Bishop whose assassination and that of his Ministers on 19 October 1983 was the most traumatic and cataclysmic occurrence in the history of Grenada and the Caribbean.

It is significant to note that it was to Herbert Blaize that the country turned for leadership and stability as the third Prime Minister of the tri-island State until his death on 19 December 1989.

For one who was not expected to live beyond adolescence because of a life threatening boyhood injury, and who had to be cajoled to enter politics by Sir John Watts and me, who will deny that Herbert Augustus Blaize had a rendezvous with the history and destiny of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. He was in the forefront of nearly every recent political and constitutional change that was made in Grenada.

His life and contribution seem to pose this question—Do the events make the man, or does the man make the events? The truth might very well lie between these two propositions.

I want to conclude by emphasizing the importance of history generally, but in particular, the need to remember and honour the women and men who contributed, by relating the legend of Sumer. Sumerian civilization flourished 3000 before Christ. Sumer was part of ancient Mesopotamia and the land of Babylon, which today is Iraq.

“What has become of the people of Sumer?” the traveler asked the old man. “History records that they were black.” “What has happened to them?” “Ah!” replied the old man, “they lost their history and so they died.”