The Tribune

A FORMER Attorney General of the Bahamas described the islands as “a cultural and economic suburb of Miami” to a new US Ambassador, a secret file has revealed.

Jack Olson met former Attorney General Paul Adderley, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, a few days before Olson became ambassador in December 1976.

Olson penned a confidential diplomatic cable on December 17, released this week by the website WikiLeaks, in which he says: “My initial impression of Adderley is that he is very intense and cunningly intelligent.

“His often only slightly veiled resentment of the US showed up in such ways as his description of the Bahamas as a ‘cultural and economic suburb of Miami’ and his claim that nearly all tourist-generated income is spent by Bahamians in Florida.”

Mr Olson described his meeting as “a correct and courteous 45-minute conversation.”

He added that Mr Adderley, “did, however, expound at length on his now familiar views about Bahamas’ population ‘timebomb’, dependence on tourism and the limited capacity of economy to diversify.”