The racial politics of criminal jurisdiction in the aftermath of the Anglo-American ‘destroyers-for-bases’ deal, 1940–50

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Andrew Pollack, ‘Rape Case in Japan Turns Harsh Light on U.S. Military’, New York Times, 19 Sept. 1995; For an analysis of the history of the American occupation of Okinawa, Japan, see Editors, ‘United States Bases and Empire’, Monthly Review, 53, 10 (March 2002), 1–14; Michael S. Molansky, The American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa: Literature and Memory (London, 1999); Laura Hein and Mark Selden, Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power (New York, 2003); and Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, Keystone: The American Occupation of Okinawa and U.S.–Japanese Relations (College Station, TX, 2000). The British territories hosting American bases were regularly referred to as ‘base colonies’ in the Colonial Office records. United States diplomats periodically adopted this language as well. For more information on the general military and strategic background, see Stetson Conn and Byron Fairchild, The Western Hemisphere: The Framework of Hemispheric Defense (Washington, 1960). The central importance of the Panama Canal (and therefore the Caribbean) is outlined in Donald A. Yerxa, Admirals and Empire: The United States Navy and the Caribbean, 1898–1945 (Columbia, 1991), 108. Another useful source is Fitzroy André Baptiste, War, Cooperation, and Conflict: The European Possessions in the Caribbean, 1939–1945 (New York, 1988). Cary Fraser, Ambivalent Anti-Colonialism: The United States and the Genesis of West Indian Independence, 1940–1964 (Westport, CT, 1994), 3. Note by Secretary Circulating Report by COS, 5 Sept. 1940 meeting, War Cabinet, Committee on United States Bases, Minutes and Memos, 4 Sept. 1940, CAB 98/6, The National Archives, London (TNA, formerly Public Record Office) (hereafter NA); see also Commonwealth Relations Office, Nov. 1949, Note 1, ‘Newfoundland United States Leased Bases Correspondence, 1940-1947’, Dominions, TNA Office (hereafter DO) 114/111. The best analysis of the negotiations can be found in Charlie Whitham, ‘On Dealing with Gangsters: The Limits of British “Generosity” in the Leasing of Bases to the U.S., 1940–41’, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 7, 3 (Nov. 1996), 589–630. Other articles of the agreement gave the United States additional rights and responsibilities. For example, Article VI ensured that United States servicemen would not face arrest without the approval of their commanding officer. Similarly, Article VII indicated that Americans being tried in civilian courts had the right of audience for American legal counsel. The British had asked that racial discrimination be placed on the agenda for possible inclusion in the agreement. However, the United States objected. As a result, the racial question was left to colonial governors and base commanders to work out on a case-by-case basis. G.H. Hall to Arthur Creech Jones MP, 2 July 1941, Colonial Office (hereafter CO) 971/20/3, TNA. The various responses are held in G 11/02/28, ‘American Bases in Newfoundland’, Vol.9, GN 4/1/D, Public Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (hereafter PANL). Archibald King, ‘Jurisdiction over Friendly Foreign Armed Forces’, American Journal of International Law, 36, 4 (Oct. 1942), 548. Ibid., 549. Ibid., 552. Archibald King, ‘Further Developments Concerning Jurisdiction Over Friendly Foreign Armed Forces’, American Journal of International Law, 40, 2 (1946), 264–76. In most cases, the colonial officers consisted of a Governor (or Commissioner), a Colonial Secretary, an Attorney General and a Chief Justice. Jerry Dupont, The Common Law Abroad: Constitutional and Legal Legacy of the British Empire (Littleton, CO, 2001), xiv. Mary Proudfoot, Britain and the United States in the Caribbean: A Comparative Study in Methods of Development (London, 1954). For a discussion of the post-slavery plantation system, see Jay R. Mandle, The Plantation Economy: Population and Economic Change in Guyana, 1838–1960 (Philadelphia, 1973). The story of the labour revolt is told in a number of works. For a Caribbean-wide perspective, see O. Nigel Bolland, On the March: Labour Rebellions in the British Caribbean, 1934–1939 (Kingston, 1995). Most studies, however, focus on Trinidad: Kelvin Singh, Race and Class Struggles in a Colonial State: Trinidad, 1917–45 (Jamaica, 1994); Bridget Brereton, A History of Modern Trinidad, 1783–1962 (Kingston, 1981); and Selwyn D. Ryan, Race and Nationalism in Trinidad and Tobago: A Study of Decolonization in a Multiracial Society (Toronto, 1972). The rush to apply metropolitan solutions to colonial problems had mixed results. J.E. Lewis, ‘ “Tropical East Ends” and the Second World War: Some Contradictions in Colonial Office Welfare Initiatives’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 28, 2 (2000), 42. See, for example, Lawrence A. Nurse, Trade Unionism and Industrial Relations in the Commonwealth Caribbean: History, Contemporary Practice and Prospect (Westport, CT, 1992). Yet American diplomat Paul Blanshard still referred to the islands as ‘black or brown proletarian countries’. Paul Blanshard, Democracy and Empire in the Caribbean (New York, 1947), 5. Ibid., 99–100. W. Adolphe Roberts, ‘Caribbean Headaches’, The Nation, 20 Sept. 1941. This opinion was shared by upper echelon officers: Admiral Greenslade, ‘Social and Economic Conditions in Jamaica’, 26 Oct. 1940, Box 3788, RG 59: Decimal Files, 1940–44, 811.34544, National Archives and Records Administration (hereafter NARA), College Park, MD. Howard Johnson, The Bahamas from Slavery to Servitude, 1783–1933 (Gainesville, 1996), 97–101; and Michael Craton and Gail Saunders, Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People Volume 2 (Athens, GA, 1992). These ‘old’ colonies had houses of assembly that went back centuries. Bermuda's legislature dated from 1620, making it the oldest one outside of England. Resistance to segregation during the 1940s and 1950s is outlined in one file found at the Bermuda Archives. S 32/2/2, ‘Racial Discrimination’, Bermuda Archives. Jewish soldiers and sailors also faced discrimination. According to one American journalist, Bermuda had ‘no Jews to hate but plenty of hatred for Jews’. William Saphire, ‘British Bermuda: A Land of Bigotry’, Jewish Examiner, 25 Oct. 1946. See Sean Cadigan, ‘Battle Harbour in Transition: Merchants, Fishermen, and the State in the Struggle for Relief in a Labrador Community during the 1930s’, Labour/Le Travail, 26 (Autumn 1990), 125–50. There is a considerable literature on the Commission of Government era in Newfoundland history. The most extensive study to date is Peter Neary, Newfoundland in the North Atlantic World, 1929–1949 (Montreal, 1988). See also David Mackenzie, Inside the Atlantic Triangle (Toronto, 1986). The suspension of democracy is critically examined in James Overton, ‘Economic Crisis and the End of Democracy: Politics and Newfoundland During the Great Depression’, Labour/Le Travail, 26 (Autumn 1990); and in Garfield Fizzard (ed.), Amulree's Legacy: Truth, Lies and Consequences Symposium (St John's, 2001). Changes to the fisheries are examined in Miriam Wright, A Fishery for Modern Times: The State and the Industrialization of the Newfoundland Fishery, 1934–1968 (Don Mills, 2001); and in David Alexander, The Decay of Trade: An Economic History of the Newfoundland Saltfish Trade, 1935–1965 (St John's, 1977). For the functioning of segregation in the American South, see John Hope Franklin, ‘History of Racial Segregation in the United States’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 304 (March 1956), 1–9; C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, 3rd edn (New York, 1989); Robert Haws (ed.), The Age of Segregation: Race Relations in the South, 1890–1945 (Jackson, 1978); and W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880–1930 (Urbana, 1993). Michael L. Conniff, Black Labor on a White Canal: Panama, 1904–1981 (Pittsburgh, 1985), 4–8. Another example is Puerto Rico. See Efren Rivera Ramos, The Legal Construction of Identity: The Judicial and Social Legacy of American Colonialism in Puerto Rico (Washington, 2001). There is a rich literature on the Panama Canal Zone: D. McCullough, The Path Between the Seas (New York, 1977); John Major, Prize Possession: The United States and the Panama Canal, 1903–1979 (New York, 1993); Michael L. Conniff, Panama and the United States: The Forced Alliance (Athens, GA, 2001); Stephen Frenkel, ‘Jungle Stories: North American Representations of Tropical Panama’, Geographical Review, 86, 3 (July 1996), 317–33; and Stephen Frenkel, ‘Geographical Representations of the “Other”: The Landscape of the Panama Canal Zone’, Journal of Historical Geography, 28, 1 (2002), 85–99. Neil A. Wynn, The Afro-American and the Second World War (New York, 1975). Seabee battalions were specialised labour units which built American naval bases around the world. Until 1942 the Red Cross even refused to accept blood donations from non-whites for the wounded. This was followed by a Jim Crow blood bank. Jean Byers, A Study of the Negro in Military Service (in WWII), June 1947, Box 783, RG 341: Headquarters US Air Force, Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel Director of Personnel Procurement and Training, Executive Office Records on Racial Policies, 1944–50, NARA. W. Adolphe Roberts, ‘Caribbean Headaches’, The Nation, 20 Sept. 1941. Presidential Memorandum for the Secretaries of War and Navy, 19 March 1941, Jamaica, 1940–44, OF 48 P, FDR Library. Blanshard, Democracy and Empire in the Caribbean, 132. There is abundant proof that such a policy was maintained. See, for example, Conn and Fairchild, The Western Hemisphere, 407–08. Eisenhower was quoted as saying this in March 1942, in Graham Smith, When Jim Crow Met John Bull: Black American Soldiers in World War II Britain (London, 1987), 27. The 99th Coastal Artillery unit was the only African-American formation to be deployed in the base colonies. Their arrival in Trinidad in May 1942 came despite the protests of the colonial administration. Susan Campbell, ‘ “En'less Pressure”: The Struggle of a Caribbean Working-Class in their International Trinidad, 1919–1956’, Ph.D. thesis, Queen's University, 1995, 266. See also Annette Palmer, ‘Black American Soldiers in Trinidad, 1942–44’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 14, 3 (1986), 203–18. United States Consul General Sidney A. Belovsky to William P. Snow, Assistant Chief, Division of British Commonwealth Affairs, 22 Sept. 1949, File 142-52: Newfoundland Bases (General) (Sept. 1949), Box 22, RG 59: Secretary of State, Permanent Joint Board of Defense, American Section, NARA. Harvey Neptune, ‘White Lies: Race and Sexuality in Occupied Trinidad’, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 2, 1 (2001). Soldiers who committed crimes were brought before one of three types of courts martial. First, general courts martial were convened to hear the most serious cases. Smaller matters were heard by special courts martial which could imprison an offender for a maximum of six months. Finally, summary courts martial heard minor cases and could punish offenders with a maximum sentence of one month jail time. Military law was so comprehensive that it encompassed virtually every imaginable offence whether military or civil. Brigadier General A.G. Strong to American Consul General, 8 April 1943, File 319.141, ‘Staff Judge Advocate. Annual Reports’, Box 57, RG 338: BBC, NARA; also see Harry N. Deyo, Staff Judge Advocate to Commanding General, Bermuda Base Command (hereafter BBC), 18 Feb. 1944, File 250.401, ‘Jurisdiction (Conf)’, Box 42, RG 338: BBC, NARA. The colonial delegates from Bermuda, Jamaica and Newfoundland who attended the conference agreed. For the Newfoundland perspective, see Peter Neary's excellent Newfoundland in the North Atlantic World. Colonial Office to the Governors of the base colonies, 30 Nov. 1942, CO 971/25/1. Roberts-Wray, Minute, 26 Sept. 1942, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’, CO 971/25/1. To quote from the minute: ‘In view of the acceptance by the United States of our views of concurrent jurisdiction, the question of trial by coloured jury becomes a real and pressing importance. If the United States raise objection in every case in trial by coloured jury, and the objection is sustained (as I think it would have to be) we shall in practice be deprived of jurisdiction in every case.’ Minute, 2 Sept. 1942, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’, CO 971/25/1. Fraser, Ambivalent Anti-Colonialism, 61–62. Memorandum from Ltn Colonel W.F. Train, War Department, General Staff, Operations Division, Washington to Mr John D. Hickerson, Department of State, 26 Jan. 1943, Box 3798, RG 59: 811.34544, NARA. W. Adolphe Roberts, ‘Caribbean Headaches’, The Nation, 20 Sept. 1941. Notes by Roberts Wray, Feb. 1945, CO 971/20/3. Robert C. Bates, ‘Strictly Confidential Background Report’, 21 Jan. 1942, File 610: Economic Reports, Box 5, Volume 3 (1941), RG 84: British Guiana Consulate, General Records, 1940–47, NARA. A double standard already existed in the colony as the courts proved reluctant to imprison the white population of the colony and ‘where it is practicable fines instead of prison sentences are imposed.’ Robert C. Bates, ‘Strictly Confidential Background Report’, 21 Jan. 1942, File 610: Economic Reports, Box 5, Volume 3 (1941), RG 84: British Guiana Consulate, General Records, 1940–47, NARA. Conn and Fairchild, The Western Hemisphere, 404. Colonial Office to the Governors of the base colonies, 30 Nov. 1942, CO 971/25/1. Douglas Jardine, Governor Leeward Islands to H. Beckett, 17 Dec. 1942, CO 971/25/1. Mayle, 16 Jan. 1943, Minute, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’, CO 971/25/1. Ibid. Mayle, 6 July 1943, Minute, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’, CO 971/25/1. William Battershill, Minute, 12 Sept. 1942, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’, CO 971/25/1. K.O. Roberts-Wray, 16 Jan. 1943, Minute, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’, CO 971/25/1. ‘K.E.P.’, 21 Jan. 1943, Minute, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’, CO 971/25/1. Colonial Secretary, Bahamas to H. Beckett, Minute, 8 Jan. 1943, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’, CO 971/25/1. William Beckett, 28 July 1942, Minute, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’, CO 971/25/1. Roberts-Wray believed that Sections 13, 33 and 36 of the Bermuda Jury Act would probably ensure a white jury if desired. These sections, he surmised, were designed for precisely this purpose. W.G. Hayter, British Embassy in Washington to H. Hohler, Foreign Office, 13 Oct. 1942, CO 971/25/1. Ibid., Mayle, Minute, 8 Sept. 1942, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’. Ibid., Governor of British Guiana to H. Beckett, 11 Jan. 1943. Ibid., Governor of Trinidad to H. Beckett, 19 Jan. 1943. Ibid., Governor of Jamaica to H. Beckett, 13 Jan. 1943. Ibid., Roberts-Wray, 4 Nov. 1942, Minute, ‘U.S. Bases: Jurisdiction Coloured Magistrates and Juries’. Chancery, British Embassy, Washington to North American Department, Foreign Office, 4 May 1942, ‘U.S. Bases Act IV Jurisdiction’, CO 971/13/2. Emerson was knighted in 1944 and made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland. Cuff, Robert H., Melvin Baker and Robert D.W. Pitt (eds.), Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador Biography (St John's, 1990), 99. Quoted in Peter Neary, Newfoundland in the North Atlantic World, 151. Ibid., 150–51. L.E. Emerson to Colonel M.D. Welty, 11 July 1941, Jurisdiction of Local Government over Federal Property and Operations, Box 16, Newfoundland Base Command, NARA. Colonel Welty to L.E. Emerson, 4 Oct. 1941, ibid. L.E. Emerson to Colonel Welty, 7 May 1941, ibid. Superintendent to Deputy Commissioner of Police, 31 Dec. 1942, CO 971/25/1. Cases of a more serious nature involving American servicemen were tried by military courts martial. Governor of Trinidad to H. Beckett, 19 Jan. 1943, CO 975/25/1. Ibid., Governor of British Guiana to H. Beckett, 11 Jan. 1943. July to Sept. 1943, ‘US Bases. British Guiana. Quarterly Reports’, CO 971/24/9. Roberts-Wray, 4 Sept. 1942, ‘U.S. Bases Act IV Jurisdiction’, CO 971/13/2. Henry Field, March 1942, ‘Henry Field. Trinidad, March 8-30, 1942’, Box 57, RG 43, NARA. Ibid. Blanshard, Democracy and Empire in the Caribbean, 116. The Officer Administering the Government to Secretary of State, 13 Dec. 1943, DO 35/1736. Minute, Mayle, 21 Nov. 1941, ‘US Bases. Criminal Offences: Leeward Islands’, CO 971/20/6; and see Governor Sir D. Jardine to Colonial Office, 26 Dec. 1941 in the same file. Frank A. Schuler, Jr., American Consul to Secretary of State, 19 May 1942, Box 3796, RG 59: 811.34544/1753, NARA. The growing dissatisfaction with the exercise of criminal jurisdiction by the American military courts extended to St Lucia where the Marines fired on several unarmed civilians. A partial list includes the accidental shooting of Arnold Maynard by a United States Marine sentry in March 1942; the 26 May 1942 shooting of a St Lucian lorry driver by a Marine guard; the shooting of a St Lucian labourer on 21 October 1943; and the shooting of George Pamphille on 18 February 1944. Assistant Administrator F.E. Degazon, ‘Service Officers' Report; Assistant Administrator; Administrator; and Governor, Period March 1941–June 1944’, ‘Periodical Reports of Incidents, Etc, United States Bases – Secretary of State's Windward Islands Despatch No.131 of 1 October 1943’, CO 971/21/7. The Officer Administering the Government to Secretary of State, 13 Dec. 1943, DO 35/1736. See, for example, this 1944 incident: ‘Private Mifford Simon, 1944’, Box 10, RG 338: BBC, NARA. 1 July–20 Sept. 1944, ‘US Bases. Windward Islands – Periodical Reports. Quarterly Report’, CO 971/24/5. J.B. Oldendorf, US Naval Operating Base, Trinidad, 24 Nov. 1942, Correspondence, 1942, Box 2, RG 84: Trinidad Consulate, Confidential Files, NARA. Jan.–March 1944, ‘US Bases. British Guiana. Quarterly Reports’, CO 971/24/9. For an Antiguan example, see Governor Sir D. Jardine to Colonial Office, 20 Nov. 1941, ‘US Bases. Criminal Offences: Leeward Islands’, CO 971/20/6. However, in the case of an African-American soldier charged with the rape of a Trinidadian of Portuguese descent, the trial was open only to local government officials due to the nature of the evidence. William J. Epes, Lieutenant Colonel, GSC, Chief of Staff to Claude H. Hall Jr., US Consul, 15 June 1942, File: 834.5, Box 32, RG 84: Trinidad Consulate General Records, 1941–44, NARA. A series of meetings were held between the Staff Judge Advocate's office of Bermuda Base Command (US) and the Bermuda government in Autumn 1941. The United States asked that the government hand over all American nationals charged with crimes outside the leased areas. After its initial refusal to consider this option, the Bermuda government relented in December 1941. The Bermuda government justified this decision, in part, by noting that private citizens could still initiate private prosecutions should justice not be found in the American service courts. However, the Americans simply refused to hand over any serviceman for such a trial. The right of private prosecution was thus an illusory guarantor of British rule of law. Charles P. Light, Jr., Memorandum for the Commanding General, Bermuda Base Command, Annual Report of Staff Judge Advocate for Fiscal Year 1942, 31 Aug. 1943, File 319.141, ‘Staff Judge Advocate, Annual Reports’, RG 338: BBC, NARA. Question and Answer to Major Light, Judge Advocate General's Department, 30 June 1941, File: 250.401, ‘Jurisdiction, Military Courts, Tribunals’, Box 42, RG 338: Bermuda Base Command, NARA. Legal Officer, US Naval Operating Base to Staff Judge Advocate, Bermuda Base Command, 10 Jan. 1942, File 319.141, ‘Staff Judge Advocate. Annual Reports’, Box 57, RG 338: BBC, NARA. Governor to Secretary of State, 13 Jan. 1943, File: USB/17/B, ‘Jurisdiction: Case of Private William Ferrell (Rape), 1942–3’, Bermuda Archives. The Bermuda government regularly handed over members of the command who had committed offences outside the leased areas. Charles P. Light, Jr., Memorandum for the Commanding General, Bermuda Base Command, Annual Report of Staff Judge Advocate for Fiscal Year 1943, 26 July 1943, File 319.141, ‘Staff Judge Advocate. Annual Reports’, Box 57, RG 338: BBC, NARA. A.G. Strong, Brigadier General, Commanding, to Commanding General, Eastern Defense Command, 30 Nov. 1942, File 250.4 Courts Martial, 1944–45, Box 42, RG 338: BBC, NARA. ‘Reports Concerning United States Army and Navy Personnel from the 1st day of April, 1941 to the 28th day of February 1944’, File 250.1 Morale and Conduct, Box 41, RG 338: BBC, NARA. Royal Gazette and Colonist Daily, Sat. 12 Feb. 1944. The American reaction to this courtroom drama can be found in: Basil F. Macgowan, US Vice Consul to Secretary of State, 13 June 1944, Box 3801, RG 59: 811.34544, NARA; and Major Bates Raney, Military Intelligence, 14 Feb. 1944, File 319.1, ‘Periodic Reports (S-2 Reports)’, Box 51, RG 338: BBC, NARA. John B. Brooks, Major General, Commanding Newfoundland Base Command, 1 June 1943, Binder 1: ‘Monthly Reports of Operations’, Box 79, Newfoundland Base Command, NARA. George D. Hopper made this estimate in September 1943. ‘Classification of American Persons Committed to H.M. Penitentiary since January 1st, 1941 to Date’, 5 Oct. 1945, File 19: US Effect of Agreement on Colonies, Box 365, GN 13/1/B, PANL. Quoted in Peter Neary, Newfoundland in the North Atlantic World, 204. John B. Brooks, Major General, Commanding Officer, 1 May 1943, Binder 1: Monthly Reports of Operations, Box 79, Newfoundland Base Command, NARA. Major General G.C. Brant to Consul General Hopper, 10 Sept. 1942, ‘Jurisdiction of Local Government over Federal Property and Operation’, Box 16, RG 338: Newfoundland Base Command, NARA. George D. Hopper, ‘Political Developments During the Month of August 1942’, Box 48, RG 84: St John's Consulate. General Records, 1936–49 (1942), NARA. George D. Hopper, ‘Political Developments During the Months of June and July, 1942’, ibid. Humphrey Walwyn to Machtig, 4 March 1944, ‘U.S. Bases. Preparation of a Paper on the Probable Future Effects on the Territories Concerned of the Leasing of the Bases to the U.S.’, DO 35/1736. Cordell Hull to Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, Box 3798, RG 59: 811.34544/2646, NARA. M.P. Mahoney, Sergeant, ‘Jurisdiction of Security Officers’, 15 Sept. 1942, File 101: ‘U.S. Base, Arrest British Seaman Kemp and Meechan at Torbay, 1942–43’, Box 109, PANL. These incidents are outlined in File 27, ‘American Bases’, Sept. 1942, Box 34, GN 13/1/B, PANL. Newfoundland Governor to the Secretary of State for the Dominions, 8 May 1942, File 10: PU-General, 1942-44, Box S 5-1-3, GN 38, PANL. Secretary of State for the Dominions to the Governor of Newfoundland, 15 May 1942, ibid. Major General John Brooks was a natural conciliator and soon reported that relations had warmed up considerably: ‘On the question of jurisdiction it has been agreed that in each borderline case a conference will be held and a decision will be made, based upon the facts of the case. This decision will be by consent and agreement of both parties.’ John B. Brooks, Major General, Commanding Officer, 1 May 1943, Binder 1: Monthly Reports of Operations, Box 79, Newfoundland Base Command, NARA. L.E. Emerson to Charles Reed II, American Consul, 29 April 1943, File 1: Jurisdiction Prior to 1945, Box 1, Argentia US Navy – Newfoundland, Naval Historical Center (hereafter NHC), Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC. Knox reasoned that the ‘long established policy of the Navy Department is not to surrender its personnel to a foreign government for trial’. Secretary of Navy, Frank Knox, to Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, 18 Aug. 1943, File 1943, Box 56, RG 84: St John's Consulate. General Records, 1936–49, NARA. Charles S. Reed II, American Consul to Secretary of State, Washington, 18 May 1943, File 1: Jurisdiction Prior to 1945, Box 1, Argentia US Navy – Newfoundland, NHC. George D. Hopper, Consul General, to Secretary of State, Washington, 3 June 1943, File 1: Jurisdiction Prior to 1945, Argentia US Navy – Newfoundland, NHC. Ibid. The relevant section read: ‘Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to effect, prejudice or restrict the full exercise at all times of jurisdiction and control by the United States in matters of discipline and internal administration over members of the United States forces, as conferred by the law of the United States and any regulations made thereunder.’ Article IV is quoted in its entirety in Malcolm MacLeod, Peace of the Continent: The Impact of Second World War Canadian and American Bases in Newfoundland (St John's, 1986), 76. Acting Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of State, 13 Dec. 1943, File: 811.34544, Box 3800, RG 59, NARA. The question of jurisdiction remained ‘unsettled’ in September 1944 when the navy's commandant at Argentia reported that no personnel would be released to local trial without the expressed permission of the Secretary of the Navy. L.J. Hudson, Captain, USN, Commandant to Commander Task Force 24, ‘Relations with Governments and their Nationals’, 4 Sept. 1944, File 1: Jurisdiction Prior to 1945, Box 1, Argentia U.S. Navy – Newfoundland, NHC. Newfoundland to British Embassy, Washington, 25 June 1946, File: American Bases in Newfoundland, Volume 8, Box 11, GN 4/1/D, PANL. Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to Governor, Newfoundland, 28 June 1946, ibid. Summary Minutes of Special Meeting, United States Section, Permanent Joint Board on Defense, 31 Oct. 1949, Base Files, 1942–52, Box 22, File: Newfoundland Bases (Oct.–Dec. 1949), RG 59, Secretary of State, Permanent Joint Board of Defense, NARA. This chronology of events was established in court. See the text of the Supreme Court judgement by Judge Brian Dunfield in the St John's Evening Telegram, 28 Feb. 1949. Ibid. It is worth mentioning that Prenoveau refused to pay the fine and that the United States Army ordered that he be ‘protected and defended’ as he was acting under orders. James H. Brewster, Jr., USAF Deputy Chief of Staff to Headquarters of Newfoundland Base Command, File: ‘Newfoundland Bases – Jurisdiction (1949)’, Box 23, RG 59: Secretary of State. Permanent Joint Board of Defence Base Files, 1946–52, NARA. The various responses are held in File: G 11/02/28, ‘American Bases in Newfoundland’, Volume 9, GN 4/1/D, PANL. Much of the recent scholarship is inspired by David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working-Class (New York, 1999 [1991]). For a devastating critique of whiteness studies see Eric Arneson, ‘Whiteness and the Historians' Imagination’, International Labor and Working Class History, 60 (Autumn 2001), 3–32. Summary Minutes of Special Meeting, United States Section, Permanent Joint Board on Defense, 31 Oct. 1949, Newfoundland Bases (Oct.–Dec. 1949), Box 22, RG 59, Secretary of State, Permanent Joint Board of Defense, Base Files, 1942-52, NARA. Mr Perkins to Secretary of State, 1 Nov. 1949, ibid. Edwin G. Moline, American Consul General, Trinidad, ‘Antigua Agenda for Leased Base Talks’, 7 Oct. 1960, File 430: US Military Base, 1960. 1 of 5, Box 4, RG 84 Trinidad Declassified Box 4, NARA.