The resignation of Guyana’s Foreign Minister Fred Wills in 1978 prompted speculation by the US Embassy here as to the reasons behind the move.
Wills had gained acclaim as Foreign Minister and had served in the position from 1975. His resignation had therefore come as a surprise.
A cable dated February 13, 1978 from the US Embassy here to a number of overseas missions said that the embassy had confirmed from an official source that Wills submitted a letter of resignation on February 12 and that his successor would reportedly be Permanent Representative to the United Nations Rashleigh Jackson. Wills was succeeded by Jackson who went on to serve until 1990.
The cable said that the resignation was reportedly requested by Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. It said that one possible reason stemming from the recently-concluded Heads of Missions conference was that several of the heads including Ambassador to the US Laurence Mann, Jackson and Permanent Secretary in the Foreign Ministry Rudy Collins had complained to Burnham about Wills’ “disorganized work habits and his failure to keep ambassadors informed.”
Another source suggested that Wills might be in trouble as a result of debts that his estranged wife had run up. Another postulate was that under Wills’ chairmanship, the participants in the Chiefs of Mission conference “engaged in substantial criticism of Guyana’s previous policy of courting the Communist countries at the expense of relations with the West. Wills and others had made clear to us that the direction that the conference took had been orchestrated by him. What Burnham thought of this is unknown”, the cable said.
The embassy promised to pursue with authoritative sources the “principal cause of Wills’ fall from favor and analyze what his departure from the GoG may portend in terms of future GoG foreign policy”.
