Calypso Challenge

The very idea that a British frigate might be bringing a landing force to storm the tiny Caribbean island of Anguilla sounded like the plot of a preposterous comic opera set to a calypso beat. But to Anguillans, the three-month-old revolt that took them out of the British-sponsored federation of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla is no joke. All week armed guards patrolled the white beaches, awaiting attack.

At week's end, the invaders were not even under way. Members of the "peacekeeping force" were still squabbling among themselves; the British frigate they were supposed to board swung at anchor off Antigua. But sooner or later the combined expedition from Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad-Tobago and Barbados expects to sail to Anguilla and restore the authority of St. Kitts' Premier, Robert Bradshaw, whose highhanded rule helped trigger the revolt. If it does, warned Anguilla's new President, Ronald Webster, it will be a "direct challenge to war."

Only three weeks ago, Webster's predecessor, Peter Adams, agreed to take the island back into the federation, but his constituents balked and deposed him. Webster insists that he has the guns and money to go it alone. And the West Indies are alive with rumors that he is being besieged with offers of help from underworld types anxious to establish a gambling haven, land developers, and a Greek shipping magnate eager to fly the Anguillan flag (two mermaids holding a seashell, a spear and an olive leaf) as a cost-cutting flag of convenience. Evidence to back up the rumors is as elusive as the eel for which French explorers named Anguilla 400 years ago. The only hard fact is that the Anguillans seem determined to make their revolt stick.

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