Ashcroft and Smith on Price’s fight for Independence

The book George Price: A Life Revealed, authored by attorney Godfrey Smith was launched on Tuesday in London.  In our newscast on Thursday, we aired a report on the event which was held at the Senate House at the University of London. It featured Smith as well as Lord Michael Ashcroft, who spoke fondly of Price and his way of leadership. Tonight, we share with you excerpts from the interviews with Ashcroft and Smith about the Price’s fight for Belize’s independence.

Lord Michael Ashcroft KCMG, President, West India Committee

“The British, during that post World War two period had a number of colonies in which they were dealing with politicians who seeking independence for their own countries, in all forms and manner—some violent, some non-violent. George Price advocated non-violence for his aims to make British Honduras at that time an independent nation. But the colonial government found dealing with him extremely difficult for he was able to get mass support and his rallies were always very well attended. And he would do such things as playing the American national anthem and waving the American flag and he was expelled from constitutional talks in the United Kingdom. This was his way of getting attention and making the demands on the British government.”

Godfrey Smith, Author, George Price: A Life revealed

Michael Ashcroft

“He describes himself on his passport as a worker because he saw that as the core of what he was; a man of singular vision, a man of the people, very charismatic, very motivated, focused, driven, a tormentor if you happened to be part of the British Colonial establishment at that point in time, of course known by most Belizeans as father of the Belizean nation and a hero.”

Lord Michael Ashcroft

“I remember once incident in 1991 in Germany, in Baum when he was on a ministerial visit to deal with the banana trade and the relationship with Europe and knowing of his reputation of being rather quiet, of abstaining especially from alcohol, I saw him with a snifter of brandy and I was teasing him about it. And he said he only took it tonically.”