Patrick John, National Leader

To much surprise, the following year Premier John announced, at Salisbury, that he would be preparing for negations towards full independence for the small island Dominica. Today this announcement is most popularly known as “The Salisbury Declaration”. On November 3^rd 1978, negotiations materialised and Dominica was granted independence from its mother country, Great Britain, and Premier Patrick John became, Honourable Patrick John, the first Prime Minister of Dominica.

However the 1970’s faced many political upheavals. These covered Mr. John’s entire period in office; political rise demands by Civil Service Association (CSA), strikes, the “Dread Period”, the rise of the Dominica Defence Force (DDF) and the clashes with the opposition, The Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), just to name a few.

But that was not all. Mr. John’s entire government was implicated in numerous questionable dealings, including a scheme to lease land to a firm allegedly planning to supply petroleum illegally to South Africa.