Letters & Opinion

Please Say It Ain’t So

Image of David Prescod
By David Prescod

THERE is another matter that has recently surfaced with which we should be concerned.

According to a June 1, 2016 notice in the London Gazette, Buckingham Palace advised that “in line with the long-established convention concerning foreign titles, British nationals who have been awarded an honour by another country may not use any associated title that the award might bestow in the United Kingdom”.

One of the persons affected by this publication is a Sir Anthony Bailey, who along with two of his associates, received his title from the government of Antigua & Barbuda in November 2014. The story surrounding the award of that knighthood to Bailey is now the subject of litigation between Bailey and the Daily Mail Online which published it according to Bailey’s website, Anthony Bailey Consulting.

According to his website, Bailey was born in London in 1970. He is currently Chairman of Anthony Bailey Ltd. having previously held the position of Chairman of Eligo International up to 2015. His website indicates that he is a “senior public relations and affairs practitioner” who “has since 1989 advised over sixty-six governments and diplomatic missions …”, adding that “Client or client partners have included in recent years governmental or non-governmental authorities in” for example, Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Montengro, Pakistan, Guyana, Russia and Venezuela among others.

Bailey’s website also lists him as being the holder of twenty-six national honours, many of which are knighthoods, while he is also the holder of five honours from dynastic orders, four of which confer knighthoods. Of the honours with which Bailey has been conferred however, only two, those of Antigua & Barbuda and Grenada carry with them the privilege of using the title “Sir” as far as can be ascertained.

Bailey is also a member of an organization called the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, and is the Order’s delegate to the UK. While the Order’s website does not list it as being recognized by the Vatican, the Order however claims that it maintains a close relationship with a number of Roman Catholic Cardinals and Archbishops, and that it provides charitable support to Catholic bodies. In the conduct of its activities, the Order also confers honours and awards to its religious associates and to public figures, awards which include knighthoods and damehoods.

On November 2, 2014, at about the same time as the Antigua launch of the Order’s Delegation for the Caribbean, Bailey and two of his associates were sworn in as knights by the Governor General of Antigua. Of Bailey’s two associates, one was NadhmiAuchi, a British national of Iraqi origin who is described as being among the wealthiest persons in the UK. According to his company’s website, General Mediterranean Holding, (GMH), he received his knighthood from Antigua in recognition of his longstanding contribution to charitable, humanitarian and religious endeavour in Antigua, the Commonwealth and the wider world. Mr.Roussev is an extremely wealthy Bulgarian businessman.

According to the Order’s website, during that visit in November 2014 the members of the Order “exchanged honours with dignitaries”, Bailey and his associates receiving knighthoods from the Antiguan government, and the Prime Minister and Governor General receiving knighthoods in exchange. On December 18, 2014 the Constantinian Order’s website announced the immediate commencement of a $4.6m charitable engagement in Antigua & Barbuda in partnership with the Roman Catholic diocese of St. John’s-Basseterre.

Following the Order’s visit to Antigua and the launch of its Caribbean Delegation on November 2, 2014, the Order’s website confirms that the delegation next visited Dominica on November 5, 2014. On this visit, honours were also exchanged with the President and with the Prime Minister of Dominica, who both received knighthoods. On December 18, 2014 the Order’s website announced the commencement of a $1.5m charitable engagement in Dominica in partnership with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Roseau.

The Order’s website lists 20 trips to the Caribbean by its delegates between April 2014 and April 2016, with visits to Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and Trinidad & Tobago. The Order’s website also reports that on these visits, Bailey and the Order invariably had meetings with the Heads of State and Heads of Government of these countries.

In the case of St. Lucia, the Order claims to have had a long relationship with us, starting in 1981. According to its website, at that time one of its members forged ties between the Order, the Church of the Most Sacred Heart in Ruislip, Middlesex, UK, and the Marian Home for the Elderly in Castries, but there is no public record of that relationship. What the record indicates is that the Church of the Sacred Heart in Middlesex established a Jubilee Trust as a registered UK charity in 1981, and that since its inception that charity has supported the Marian Home here in St. Lucia. There is no record of any association between the Marian Home and the Constantinian Order, although that is what the Order’s website suggests.

The earliest public record of a link between the Constantinian Order and St. Lucia is that of a release on the Order’s website dated July 2012 indicating that the Order had awarded the Gold Benemerenti Medal of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George to former Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony. From the Order’s website, St. Lucia’s next recorded contact with the Constantinian Order was with the visit of Bailey to St. Lucia in April-May 2014 when he was welcomed by the Archbishop, received by the Governor General, had lunch with former Prime Minister Anthony, and met with the Cabinet Secretary.

According to the Order’s website, Bailey again visited St. Lucia on October 29-31, 2014 and was next back in St. Lucia on January 25, 2015 promoting the same projects as he had on his previous visits, which are, repairs to the Cathedral and the launch of a book by the Archbishop. On that last visit Bailey paid a courtesy call on the Governor General and met with the Cabinet Secretary. There is no further record of Bailey visiting St. Lucia in 2015, with the next recorded date of a visit by him to St. Lucia, according to the Order’s website, being on June 6, 2016 when we were all occupied with national elections.

We have undertaken this description of the activities of Bailey and the Most Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George not to question his relationship with the Roman Catholic church and the Order’s charitable contributions to the Church in the region, but to question Bailey’s resulting relationships with the governments of our region. While there can be no objection to an Order with ties to the Roman Catholic church becoming involved with the Church in the Caribbean and making charitable donations to it, the leap from there to the relationships developed by Bailey with leaders and governments in the Caribbean through these activities is disturbing.

According to an article appearing in Caribbean News Now of June 8, 2016, Bailey is now the holder of a diplomatic passport issued by Antigua & Barbuda as a result of his being appointed as a special trade envoy to Antigua. He also claims to hold Antiguan citizenship although he has not applied for citizenship under that country’s citizenship by investment laws, and does not meet the residency requirements for naturalisation.

What we have noticed as well is that, without prior consultation, the Government of St. Lucia introduced legislation on July 28, 2015 which created the titles of “Sir” and “Dame” to go with our highest national award. And as we reflect on the issue of that diplomatic passport to Juffali and his promise of a diabetes research centre for St. Lucia, and the appearance of Arabs on our shores shown in the media as entering St. Lucia not only carrying diplomatic passports but also having St. Lucian nationality, we can only wonder where our country and our diplomacy may have been heading.

It’s not looking too good in this world of diplomacy, charity, knighthoods, diabetes research centres, diplomatic passports and passports for sale via these citizenship by investment schemes, and here’s hoping that somebody, somewhere, will please say that it is not what it seems to be.

1 Comment

  1. ………the most absurd title is ‘Lord’;………think about it : can those joker walk on water, raise the dead or heal the sick?……..NO!…….so why call them Lord?…….

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