Bahamian independence leader to represent Queen

NASSAU, Bahamas - A politician who was a staunch advocate of independence from Britain during the Bahamas' "quiet revolution" in the 1960s was appointed the country's new governor general, the queen's official representative.

Arthur D. Hanna, a lawyer who served as deputy prime minister under the late premier, Sir Lynden Pindling, takes over from Dame Ivy Dumont. He will be sworn in on today at Government House, the hilltop mansion that is the traditional home of the Bahamas' titular head.

Hanna, who will be 78 in March, was described in a Cabinet Office press release as "one of the earliest and most persistent advocates of independence and played a pivotal role in bringing national sovereignty to reality in 1973."

Hanna studied law at Bristol University and Inner Temple in England and was called to both the English and Bahamas bars.

He was an outspoken opposition parliamentarian in the 1960s and one of the most aggressive critics of the old ruling white oligarchy known as the Bay Street Boys.

Following the 1967 general election that brought the Progressive Liberal Party to power and established black majority rule for the first time, Hanna served in four major ministerial posts -- education, trade and industry, home affairs and finance -- before his resignation in 1984.

He also attended three constitutional conferences in the 1960s and 1970s that led to national independence. Under Pindling, he served as deputy prime minister and leader of the House of Assembly.

The Atlantic archipelago of 317,000 people has been self-governing since 1964. It won independence in 1973, but remains a Commonwealth nation with the British monarch as its formal head of state.

- REUTERS