S57

 On the question of cost of training, a formidable barrier is-encountered, as is
 pointed out in-paragraph 55 of the Commission's Report-: "Failing federation
 and failing assistancefrom Colonial Development & Welfare Funds the cost would
 need to be met by contributions by individual Colonies in agreed proportions."
 Now that is one of the difficulties faced by the Commission and it is left
 unsolved. The absence of specific recommendations in the Report is confusing,
 and paragraph 98 of the Cbmmission's Report has this to say:
 S" There is, howevere, one problem for which a common solution must be
 'oundi before.unification can be regarded as a practical proposition, and that
 is the problem of enabling Officers transferred from one Colony to another
 to obtain living accommodation on reasonable terms."
 And in paragraph 99 they go on to say :
 "It is clear to us that, in these circumstances, unification of the services
 will be defeated unless a solution can be found for the housing problem."

 We know that the housing problem is a difficult one; we know that at present
 it is beyond our ability to solve it here in St. Vincent, and also in' other Colonies of
 the British Caribbean, and so."that alone is sufficient to'cause us to decide to
,decline.to-go ahy further with this unification.
 Whether the questiofi is unification or federation, there has to Je-created an
 authority with special powers to deal with Public Services. The Holmes Report
 suggested it, and it is significant that that is the only proposal in that Report
 which has been accepted by the- S.C.A.C. However,.it is stated in the Holmes
 Report that the Secretary of State in his draft despatch of May 1946 contemplated
 the setting up of a regional authority. The authority referred to is the one which
 has-been designated as the Public Services Commission,'and the Secretary of State
 states in that connection that" Such an authority with powers of selection and
 posting of officers would be essential to a properly effective 'system of regional
 unified services ". and further ".It is certainly not a task which the Secretary of
 State could successfully undertake at a distance in respect of purely local staff."
 Then in paragraph 8' referring to the- constitutional position 'of the
:Commission, the Report goes on to .ay :
 / "It is an inevitable result ,of this situation that our report is not as
 incisive or, in.some-respects, as-detailed as we would wish, and that it
 abounds in assumptions and qualifications. We hope, however, that the
 main principles of reform which we advocate emerge with .sufficient clarity,,
 S aid the, fact that we cannot apply those principles to unforeseeable.
 conditions ah~d circumstances does not strike at .the root of our proposals,
 since that is a tasl' which will naturally devolve upon the-Public Service
 *.. Commission."

 .Th Commjssion were facing their task in the dark and that is why no
 summary of their recommendations has been appended to the Report, and they
 Shave stated A mere Summary would therefore be more misleading than helpful "
 We. have, therefore, no recommendations on which to work./ With no
 recommendations, the .Coinmission came. to this conclusion-and it is on that
 conclusion that miy Resolution is based- that any system of uliification that falls
 short of complete federation is in the meaning of. the word imperfect,- and,- to
 Squote.th'e Commission, is at best no more than a halfway house between separate
 services for each territory and a federal service."