P-1-C-16a
DICK MC COY
appt with Marcie [Marceline Jones], Tim [Jones], Sharon [Amos], Terri [Carter Jones], [crossed out name: “Jocyln” [Jocelyn Brown Carter]]
Mon
20/2/78
-he said that in relation to Hoyt [Guyana Economic Development Minister Desmond Hoyte] that care in Guyana, health care, is a big scandle and that Hoyt or certain govt elements might feel that if we appear to be the only ones doing anything it culd be used by the PPP to hammer the govt.
-Hoyt he said has a good reputation for being an honest man, [Deputy Chief of Mission John] Blacken knows him, he is one of the better ministers
-He said that in terms of the US, the US built the Gangi River Bridge (but at the appt with Blacken where Dick McCoy was present he said the bridge was joining venture with the Guyanese) / he said that the US didn’t get any credit for the Gangi River Bridge
-he said that Guyana is newly Independent and is very jealous of anyone’s ability to do things – whether black or white Americans are intimidating
-he said the Guyanese are very sensitive in this regard, they are happy to have us here because of our disciplined production but we are not the same as Guyanese to them (he was generalizing here, any American in not the same)
-he said even Americans who are close friends of the PM [Prime Minister Forbes Burnham], are still thought of as Americans/ he said they are not going to throw you out
-we asked for his suggestions man a as we want to improve/ he said that there is a man Victor Forsythe who is in the Ministry of Info and Culture who maybe could help us know what to say in news releases etc.
-he said that people think we are crazy to leave the US, they can’t understand why a group of Americans would leave the comforts of US to live in the jungle/we mentioned our desire to help and that we thought Guyana has potentialities/ it was kind of surprising to me but he said, “We of the US Govt think Guyana has a great future also. There’s room to grow here.” (room because it isn’t crowded and needs more population)
-he mentioned again in regards the article in the paper and Hoyt’s reaction that he (McCoy) had heard us say we build the best houses in Guyana (I said that couldn’t have been said) but McCoy still thinks he heard it/ but he referred again to us saying we have a medical facility that serves all of the Northwest.
-he said that our group is looked at as a communal organization that is socialistic/ I said well it’s not in political terms, we base our group on the acts of the Apostles where all shared what they have. He said “yes, I could say it was like an Israeli Kibbutz too” but it is [text crossed out] seen as a socialist structure and not just the typical religious organization
-he said that even in Parliament this could come up and does the subject of Americans (and our claims for what we’re doing)
-but he felt that Hoyt was obviously angry at Carl Blackmon [Blackman] for letting it go in, the govt. is on shaky ground/ there are all kinds of rumors going around and the govt. is very sensitive/ it’s not the master of it’s own house. and knows it’s not doing all it can for the people/ atrocious medical facilities in the North-West. The govt. wants to intimate it can take care of the people – yet people are starving. He knows for a fact from people in the North West (or that know the Northwest that there is not a lot of food going into the Northwest. And there is the problem of Guyanese people being redeployed
-he said that John obviously resembles JJ/ he said nobody knows yet how the [John Victor] Stoen case will come out. Several weeks ago he talked to Stoen’s attorney [Jeff Haas] and the attorney seemed to understand that the Judge’s calendar was just full
-He said that in Guyanese law the father who is not married to the mother has no claim to the child. A father who wants to bring a child to the US (who isn’t legally married to the mother) has to adopt the child (Infancy act). If the mother and father are not married, the father has no claim to the child
-however he said when he was in Israel and Yugoslavia and there was a parent or relative with a child and someone from another country wanted the child returned (like the USO [USA] they couldn’t get the child out because the relative or parent with the child was there in the country and the child was a citizen/ most countries like to think a child is better off in their country
—
P-1-C-16b: Reverse side of 16a, Ukiah Daily Journal article, Jones named Outstanding Clergyman, April 28, 1975
—-
P-1-C-16c
than to be removed/ only in Hungary when he was there did a child get sent back to the US
-McCoy when we mentioned all the difficult situations for John when he was with Grace [Stoen] said, “I admit as a father it’s a strange situation” (For John to be with Grace)
-he talked to the Chief Justice of the [text crossed out] Supreme Court [Harold Bollers] and a couple of other justices to see how the case was proceeing and they said they couldn’t say but it would be decided on what is best for the child
-he said they are taking pains not to show they are baised (all he talked to in the legal field) but they will way the number of years the [text crossed out] child has been where he is [text crossed out]/ he said that there is no precedent for this kind of case / it’s a question of the “legal” parents versus what’s best for the child and if the first presumption of the legality of the parents to have the child is presumed not to be in the best interest than that might be the answer
-he said that Bentley [Brindley] Benn was involved in the Bauxite Workers strike in Nov. 1976 and he said that all the groups were there to embarrass the govt. and there was tear gassing and all/ the workers there were all black so it was a bad situation to have the strikers striking and causing difficulty and the workers being all black / McCoy said we ought to ignore him (we said we were doing so)
-he said the govt. is very sensitive right now because of economics and lay offs
-he tried to probe us/ asked if any other Embassys had visited us, like the Canadians, the Cubans, the Russians (I said No they hadn’t) and he went on about how the Canadians were doing a project with forestry (apparently they are helping the govt of Guyana with this) but apparently Dick is either watching us at the Russian and Cuban Embassy which wills told us they were or monitoring our radio which Wills said they do (I noticed a radio antenae at the American Embassy)
—-
P-1-C-16d: Reverse side of 16c, San Francisco Chronicle article, How FBI Harassed Bay Area, Dec. 2, 1977