The Duke of Cambridge expressed his ‘profound sorrow’ over slavery in a speech at a dinner in Jamaica during his and the Duchess of Cambridge’s Caribbean tour.
According to the BBC, Prince William said at a dinner hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica that slavery was abhorrent, ‘should never have happened’ and ‘forever stains our history’.
Earlier, the island’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, told Prince William, the future king of Britain, that his country planned to pursue its goals as an independent country.
Holness, who campaigned on a platform of making Jamaica a republic, told the duke there were ‘unresolved’ issues but said that the royals’ presence gave an opportunity for those to be addressed.
He said: ‘We intend to attain in short order our development goals and fulfil our true ambitions and destiny as an independent, developed, prosperous country.’
Last year, Barbados officially removed the Queen as its head of state in a ceremony attended by the Prince of Wales. In a speech to mark the occasion Prince Charles acknowledged the ‘appalling atrocity of slavery’.
Commenting on Prince William’s remarks about slavery, the BBC’s royal correspondent Jonny Dymond notes that ‘sorrow’ is not ‘sorry’, and that while ‘(some) will be disappointed’, Prince William’s saying ‘sorry’ would have been ‘a different order of magnitude, carrying with it acceptance of responsibility and opening up the question of financial compensation’.
Dymond adds: ‘Hardly surprising then that Prince William didn’t go that far. That would be a job for government, not royalty.’