HC Deb 19 January 1944 vol 396 cc182-3
72. Mr. Riley

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has any information regarding the case of some 600 Jamaican workers who had been brought, under an agreement, from Jamaica to Florida for farm work and were detained in gaols at Miami and Tampa because they refused, on arrival in Florida, to sign a document which discriminated between themselves and white workers.

Colonel Stanley

No, Sir. I have not been informed of any such incident. If the hon. Member will be good enough to give me the particulars, I will cause inquiries to be made.

Captain Plugge

Is my right hon. and gallant Friend aware that at the same time a similar number of native workers were transferred from Nassau to Rochdale, in South Florida, and that these workers were treated with the greatest consideration by their employers, the local population and by the Floridian authorities?