BB-32-k-6
Conversation with Maurice Harrisson, owner/manager of Design & Graphics 13/4/78
I don’t know exactly how we got on politics. I believe we were talking about the blackouts and he was telling me how things were going downhill in the country. He said that the government wants people to increase production, and yet there were thousands of workers out of work because of the power failure. (For background: Harrisson is the official design and layout and ad man for the government, and has been for years. He is very well known around town, especially in party circles.)
– He mentioned that he had heard about the foreign exchange scandal. He said he was 22 million dollars in US foreign exchange that had been stolen from the government. I asked him if he had heard any names. He said Hope, King, and Noel. King is the one who is most deeply involved (that is Frank Hope, Minister of Finance, George King, Minister of Trade and Consumer Protection, and I don’t know who Noel is.) This coincides exactly with something that [Foreign Minister Fred] Wills told us, which supported the original thing we have been told by Vincent Hines. Hines didn’t give us any names, but Will filled in the details.
– Harrison gets his information from someone high in the party. He said that sometimes people in the party know things that are going on that people in the government don’t.
– When I asked him to tell me frankly how Shirley Field-Ridley [Minister of Information] felt about Peoples Temple, (he has to work with her quite often, directly) he told me that she does not like people who are white, and if you are white and American “it’s 200 times worse.”
– He said that [Desmond] Hoyte is a “bitch” and is not very popular at all in the party. He said that he knew that several years ago Hoyte was very anxious to leave Guyana.
– he said that [Prime Minister Forbes] Burnham is worth 54 million dollars, he said most of which has been accrued since he has been in office. He said that he knew that Burnham hardly had money enough to pay for his car being repaired when he was not in office.
– He told of a story where he was in a meeting with [Hamilton] Green, Burnham, and some others and Hoyte came in and asked what he was doing there and said he should leave. Harrisson said that he told Hoyte off in front of everybody. He said that he has done jobs for the PM and others for years, and had sat in meetings, and he wasn’t going to let “that bitch’s ass” do that to him
– Harrisson liked. the show very much he is very very positive to the project, and loves our radio shows. He did not like Mike’s [Prokes] speech, but other than that thought the show was great. He also didn’t think we need any outside entertainment.
– He said that he thought the person who is maneuvering into position to be the next in line was Viola Burnham [wife of Prime Minister]. He said that she is getting involved in everything, and if you compare her position now to what it was several years ago, she is much more powerful.
He said Dr. [Ptolemy] Reid ss the most committed person in the party ideologically. (Several people have made this comment. It is a prevalent opinion, among pro-and anti-PNC people.)