About Balliceaux and the Linley Family

Editor: Given the comments we have seen and heard about Baliceaux and the Linley family lately, we feel it necessary to make this response.

We, Anthony Linley and Gemma Linley are the administrators of the estate of Thomas Franklyn Linley who died in 1922. He was our great grandfather. We are both Vincentians having been born in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Our parents were also Vincentians having themselves been born in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

St Vincent and the Grenadines is made of many different islands. Some of them are privately owned. Baliceaux is only one of them. History records that in July 1796, after waging war on them, the British rounded up as many of the Garifuna they could find, exiled them to Baliceaux and then from there deported to Central America those who survived the harsh conditions.

We do not know who owned Baliceaux at the time of this genocide. What we do know is that our great grandfather bought Baliceaux in 1899. It was not gifted to him. Our father has told us that his grandfather lived and worked on the island. Baliceaux has been owned by the Linley family for over 120 years.

Over the last few decades, representatives of the Garifuna people in particular have shown an interest in travelling to Baliceaux to honour and pay respects to their ancestors who died on the island. Further, when she was Minister of Culture, then Hon Rene Baptiste held discussions with our father with a view to the Linley family donating to the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines a small plot of land to erect a memorial to the Garifuna.

The Linley family have accommodated reasonable requests by persons who wish to visit the island. On such occasions we would inform the person who is the caretaker. We have however noted with dismay that there seems to be a belief by a few persons that Baliceaux is property that can be trespassed upon at will. This is regrettable. The Linley family enjoy the same private property rights as anyone else. Every owner of land is entitled to dispose of their property as they see fit, including to sell it for what they can get for it. There are other private islands in SVG which have been sold or are currently advertised for sale. As administrators of an estate, we have a responsibility to sell Baliceaux to any buyer, including to the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines for an amount that is negotiated and represents, or is close to its market value. Equally, the Government is entitled to acquire any property in SVG for a public with payment being made within a reasonable time, of adequate compensation.

It is disappointing to us that any commentator should either seek to link the Linley family to the genocide of the Garifuna or to give the false impression that the genocide somehow puts our ownership into question or makes us complicit in, or profiting from the brutal treatment of the Garifuna. There was a time, subsequent to the Garifuna genocide, when all of St Vincent and the Grenadines comprised various plantations worked by enslaved persons who were born and died on those plantations. That fact does not give a right to anyone today to vilify or dispossess the current owners of the lands that formed part of those plantations.
Anyone who questions our title to Baliceaux is free to check the public records. They will find that in 1899 Baliceaux and Battowia were bought by Thomas Franklyn Linley and that we are now the administrators of the estate of Thomas Franklyn Linley.

Anthony Linley
Gemma Linley

(Editor’s note: The Government of SVG recently stated its intention to acquire Balliceaux)