THEhe approach was delicate. One can imagine what internal heartbreaks Prince Charles felt on November 29 when Barbados became a republic. But when, at the close of the official ceremony in Bridgetown, the capital of the West Indian island, the Union Jack was lowered, folded and placed in the national archives to be replaced by the standard with the yellow trident stripped of the crown and the royal monogram, no one could decipher the feelings which animated the eldest son of Elizabeth II. Showing nothing, the heir to the Throne did not flinch, turning the page of history as if nothing had happened.
Of course, Barbados remains in the Commonwealth. The organization born of decolonization is a kind of club whose 54 members, representing more than two billion …
