Delegates from Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, Barbados, the Windward Islands, and the Leeward Islands came to a preliminary agreement for a Caribbean federation.
Cheddi Jagan's (b. 1918) left-wing party won 9 of the 14 elective seats in the Guiana legislative council. On Aug. 16, Gov. Patrick Renison invited Jagan to participate in, but not to form, a new cabinet.
The Federation of the West Indies came into being. The 77,000-square-mile federation, with a population of 3 million, was composed of ten units: Trinidad, Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, Dominica, and Antigua.
The British colonial office announced that if a new constitution was accepted for British Guiana, it would go into effect in Aug. 1961. Two years after the general election, full independence would be considered.
