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Meeting with Guyana, U.S. officials, March 1978

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Pat Small (the mother of the girl Jennifer Small from Radio Antilles) sent me a note during the performance/ said that at least they could have given credit to her for suggesting one of the charities (she wanted public credit), i didn’t see her to talk to her about this [Handwriting: “send a thank you!”]

 

John Clark (Debbie [Touchette], Sharon, Tim [Carter]) 22/3/78

-wants to know if it’s OK for him to have Rosalind [Rosalynn] Carter’s picture (we were told on the radio to give it to him)

he talked to the Marshall of the Supreme court and he was negative about about PT, he said that he heard that people in PT hide when someone comes because they don*t want people to serve them papers/ he said something [crossed out: “is”] wrong is going on there (in Jonestown) – he is the one who would serve JJ if someone on Stoen’s side would want to activate the situation

-gave John the Willie Brown and Harvey Milk letters to Carter (he said he’d send them to [Forbes] Burnham and [Ptolemy] Reid right now)

-he said there is not a blasted thin[g] to worry about with PM and Reid/ PM intends to go to Jonestown when he is less busy/ said he had spoken to the PM about it

-said that 3-4 congressmen had contacted the State Dept about us (when I asked how many), these letters went to the Ambassador (USA)

-regarding the press standoff, he said that the reason is they have to go easy because the case is not finished/ they can’t appear to be siding with JJ, govt has to act discretely as the case is still pending

-when asked about the letters in our file, he said they said we were collecting money illegally and that there is something wrong with this church

-Shahabadeen had showed the letters to John and the responses that Collins (of The Foreign Affairs Ministry) had written saying there was no wrongdoing in Guyana and that PT was doing good work and was welcomed by the govt.

-Shahabadeen agreed with these responses

[Handwriting: “I don’t like long term bonds. Should Treas [?] bills, staggered. They shouldn’t ?? and should be external account funds….” “ask gene” “NO!”]

 

RE GOVT. BONDS

-he said the govt would be pleased if you would take out govt. bonds and it could be communicated to the PM and the Ministry of Foreign affairs/ presently they are in a bad situation (I questioned him about this because the night he caame to dinner he said govt bonds aren’t a good investment), he said with baurite[?] sales abroad and good rice and sugar crops it will be OK/ the Govt Treasury bonds are a long range way of making money (10 years)

-for investments you can make a deposit with Clarke and Martin and they can lend it out for Building Society Mortgages at 8% [??] 6% to us and 2% to John and the govt would also get some % but he doesn’t know how much, he’d have to find out,

He said these can be 3 yrs, 5 yrs, or 10 yrs redeemable)

-he will check with the PM and Reid about coming to his house with us for a party

 

SHIRLEY FIELD-RIDLEY (HE CALLED HER WHILE WE WERE THERE)

-he said “if you don’t know about PT, in the interests of our country, you should know about them, they do terrific work. I want to see you about them”

-he paused and then said “tell me in confidence”

-said then “I spoke to Viola Burnham a few days and a delegation of 12 is going to Jonestown at their expense, and you’re invited” ——- “I’m getting involved because they’ve asked us to let you know about their work”

-and genuinely we think —- I see (this is exactly what they said

-he said “OK, I can’t do that–let me come in and see you about it sometime next week” (maybe we should talk to him again about this)

-”I didn’t know you had all that, OK I continue to be proud of you, truly (we asked what she said, first he said she was impressed by our work and that she has all the documentation on us and she wanted to see with her own eyes before throwing bouquets/ valuable work she hears from ministers who have seen it (OVER)

 

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-we pushed him to tell us what is confidential and she said that she mentioned we have a lot of enemies abroad and that’s why they’re going carefully

-But John said in his mind Jesud Christ had a lot of enemies too

 

CDE FRASER (Bank of Guyana) 23/3/78

-accont external, fixed rate (diplomatic personnel usually)

[Handwriting: “why don’t we?”]-wondered why we didn’t hold our money in US dollars if we were worried

-he doesn’t know of any plan for devaluation

-negotiation on a boat is a domestic sale/ you need approval from the Ministry of Finance if you make an investment of sale and need an import license

-import license to bring the boat in (not duty, indicate paid from external account, no foreign exchange allowed)

-ticklish situation when we told him about [text crossed out] registered somewhere

-else (w an object registered somewhere else – he said if it is a Guyanese owner, it’s required by law to bring funds from a boat in to the country (he said for example if it is a boat, we didn’t tell him it was but he [text crossed out] used that for an example) – you are supposed to pay in Guyanese dollars

-if the seller has an account somewhere else (it is unusual for someone to have permission to have an account outside unless they are a foreign diplomat)

-we’d have to call Cde. Fraser if there was an actual situation and check if the seller had permission to have an outside account

-govt. securities, no assurances against devaluation (this is a domestic account)

[Unreadable handwriting in margin… “This!” maybe?] Treasury Bills: thru a commercial bank/these are about the safest thing (8% in a year), not a problem to draw it out before it comes due/ some agricultural loans are less percentage

-Building Society Mortgages (4-5%) these are safe, a long time business, they are expanding and doing good/ it takes longer than 1 year to draw out

 

[US Deputy Chief of Mission] DICK MC COY 8/3/78

-re Radio Antilles/ he said it was the best radio station/ he said it’s very objective

-he said he asked about us a lot/ not that I don’t endorse you but I just say what you are doing, that you are American citizens, law abiding, no evidence of any problem / decent, trying to help develop Guyana

-regarding the rumor of drugs about us/ he said that it is a Guyanese penchant for rumor mongering and maybe they heard we were bringing in medical drugs and thought it was illega l drugs

Re our Boat

-said that he knew we checked in with the police every time because Barker told him so

re: Leon and did he talk to Barker/ McCoy said he himself talked to Barker about Leon and the complaints Leon made about brutality but he McCoy said he found that Leon’s charges were untrue

(he said that Radio Antilles is financed by the Fed. Republic of Germany, West Germany)

Re Mary Rodgers relative, said she wanted contact with Mary but had no hostility against PT/ just didn’t get mail from Mary/ call her collect (she wrote the American Embassy and asked this) – we told him the message about them just wanting to start trouble and Stoen contacting relatives and they wanting to use the amateur radio to convey negative things etc.

-we were talking about the destructiveness of Grace and Tim and he said that when people committ themselves emotionally and that doesn’t work out, they often get vindictive and that she was close to JJ at one time/ we argued with that and explained the background but first he said “she had to be close

 

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McCoy 8/3/78 pg 2

to JJ to get pregnant by him (and then we explained it)

-he said that religion develops a very strong emotional tie and when that is severed it is a problem

-I explained about the terrorism philosophy of many who left and that they had pushed us to be violent/ he said that terrorists can cause a lot of problem for people/ he gave as an example a young man who was protesting against the American Embassy abroad but when he got in trouble he wanted the help of the US

-he said he knew someone here in AID Malcolm Jensen who had talked to us on the ham radio when he was La Pag Bolivia

 

[Vibert] MINGO 26/3/78

-we emphasized the popularity with our program etc

-he said the police has no order to arrest JJ (He checked with [Police Commissioner Lloyd] Barker) he said there is no cause for alarm, he said unless someone on the other side goes to the court and gets the Marshall to activate it

-when I mentioned if he had talked to Reid about that person who said we may have to pay the judge/ he said he didn’t think in this country you have to do this

 

[Fred] Wills 8/3/78 (Cont) what I didn’t finish typing before

-they will either have an election or a referendum (appeal to the people for support

-the PPP is asking for a National Front, also trying to get some power

-they will say they want National Unity/Janet Jagan for years has been criticized here, and would wonder why we were accepted if she wasn’t, since she has a lot in common with us in terms of havigng an American background, the fact her brand of socialism is different is irrelegant

-[Cheddi] Jagan is a good politician, he’s an idealist, but she’s a politician/she’s related to the Rosenberg’s on Julius’ side

-if the PPP stressed National Unity we’re OK because we are a part of that but if they go into sectional strife then they could attack us as CIA, agents

-during the period of national unity promotion with PPP, PT should not conduct themselves in any way to give anything that could be remotely used against us by the PPP later on

[US Embassy official John] Blacken has visited Wills 3 times, said Wills has vision and insight into Guyana’s situation

-Wills felt the talent show would help us

-he said the PNC would cut the PPP to ribbons if they attack us, if we get along with Amer Indians, it would be difficult for the PPP to attack us/ sentimental blcok vote of Amer Indians for PPP)

-Young asked for Blacken to work with him/ McCoy will soon get a promotion

 

Wills 3/78 (Debbie and Sharon) before the performance

-he said there has been a decision, not a public decision but it was given to the lst 5 people of the country (was this being fed to us to keep us quiet because why didn’t Viola Burnham know of it and why did she just now (4/4/78) question if she should meet with us

-he said [Desmond] Hoyte knows the decision now too

-[Judge Aubrey] Bishop has got the word the the decision is to go to PT (Bishop was told to contact Wills and told him this), also the arrest orders were to go

-word is that the Stoens are not to be given permission to land here (Wills thinks it’s a wrong decision) said oncethey decide for Stoen, I mean JJ, he said, I think they should be allowed to come in and hear the decision

-Guyana is going to the IMF to get money,

-Hoyte is a team man, he might not like a decision but if it is from the CAPTAIN he will follow it thru/ he is a nationalist not a socialist,

(Over)

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BB-2-j-4

-Wills has seen Hoyte take more thorough action when he’s against a decision in following it up than when he is for it

-it was [Forbes] Burnham that took the decision, the operant caucas and some others know it/ when asked if he had talkedto the PM, he said he had but not necessarily about that

-he said we still should check with Mingo about JJ coming to town

-he said re the IMF since it is American controlled, you have to orchestrate your moves.and yet Burnham is going to visit the USSR April 19 (he was to go last year)

-you have to give on small things like letting Stoen come in to hear the decision (so human rights won’t be questioned)

-IMF doesn’t have to give a loan so if you upset the US too much, you don’t get a loan

-Burnham spoke at Caffy Ideological College [Cuffy Ideological Institute] and gave a strong speach on socialism so even at the beginning and end of the budget he’s made a strong stand

-why add to the problem with moves like preventing Stoen from coming in

-have JJ come to town after the decision/ so as not to push the situation before it’s decided-.

-Wills tried to get Bishop to say when the decision would be but he wouldn’t

-Bishop wants to write a jurisprudence masterpiece

-asked if anyone ever suggested paying off a judge to a client/ he said they would be jailed and lose their practice

-will ask Reid about when the decision will be made

-Reid didn’t know the case bad been prolonged so long, he’s a busy man

-there was good mention of our participation at the WRSM meeting (to Burnham, Reid etc) and district meetings/ our involvement, committment and dedication

-he thought they would play fough for ahil /

Boat and foreign exchange/ you have to get permission from the Bank of Guyana

-re Hamilton Green and our doctor, he said he won’t let babies die, Wills said he’d talk to him and to his Perm Sect Hines and get that stopped dright away