St Kitts-Nevis Independence (1982-1983)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0101 ICS 98
Held at	: Institute of Commonwealth Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/resources/library ›
Full title	: St Kitts-Nevis Independence (1982-1983)
Date(s)	: 1982-1983
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 3 files
Name of creator(s)	: Birch | Chris | fl 1982 | journalist
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

St Kitts-Nevis comprises the islands of St Kitts or St Christopher, in 1623 the first West Indian island to be settled by the British, and Nevis which was colonised in 1628. The two islands, together with Anguilla were united in 1882, and became an independent state in association with the United Kingdom in 1967. There were objections by Anguilla to the administration, which it considered to be dominated by St Kitts, and independence was declared by Anguilla later that year. Negotiations to resolve the dispute failed, and after being placed directly under British control in 1971, Anguilla was granted its own constitution in 1975 and union with St Kitts and Nevis formally severed in 1980.
There was a Constitutional Conference in London in 1982 to discuss the independence of St Kitts and Nevis. Despite disagreements over special provisions for Nevis in the proposed constitution, the independence process continued and was formally achieved on 19 September 1983. The objections came principally from the Labour Opposition, which until recently had dominated the administration and was still the largest party. Since 1980, however, the Government had consisted of a coalition of the People's Action Movement and Nevis's Reform Party, which held the balance of power and which the Opposition felt was instrumental in achieving Nevis's strong position in the new constitution.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Documents relating to the achievement of independence by St Kitts-Nevis in 1983, including official publications; papers on objections to the proposed constitution published by the St Kitts Nevis Anguilla Labour Party (Workers League) and Professor Bryan King and newspapers, bulletins and articles relating to the achievement of independence.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The papers are grouped into three sections according to the type of document

Conditions governing access:

Open although advance notice should be given. Access to individual items may be restricted under the Data Protection Act or the Freedom of Information Act.

Conditions governing reproduction:

A photocopying service is available, at the discretion of the Library staff. Copies are supplied solely for research or private study. Requests to publish, or to quote from original material should be submitted to the Information Resources Manager.

Finding aids:

Catalogued to file level (see link to repository catalogue).

Archival Information

Archival history:

The papers were accumulated and donated to ICS by Chris Birch, a West Indian journalist born in St Kitts, and nephew of Professor Bryan King, to whom a number of the papers concerning objections to the proposed constitution relate.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled 2000, revised by Alan Kucia as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project, Aug 2001.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Created 21/09/2000.