HC Deb 06 July 1938 vol 338 cc371-3
37. Mr. Riley

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies when the last general election to the Legislative Council of Jamaica was held, the number comprising the Legislative Council, the number of elected and nominated members, respectively, and the number who are white and coloured, respectively?

Mr. M. MacDonald

?: The last general election was held in 1935. The Legislative Council consists of the Governor as President and a maximum of 29 members, of whom five are ex-officio members, 14 are elected and so nominated. I am not in a position to answer the last part of the question.

Mr. Riley

Does the right hon. Gentleman not consider that the time has come when there should be an extension of the franchise upon a much wider basis; and is he aware that in the neighbouring islands of the West Indies manhood suffrage is available for black and white?

Mr. MacDonald

I think that is the subject of another question which the hon. Member has down for answer a little later; but I cannot agree.

Mr. Dalton

Has not the right hon. Gentleman in his office the particulars asked for in the last part of the question? Surely he has them?

Mr. MacDonald

If I had the particulars in the office I would have given them. It is because I have not got them that I gave the answer I did.

Mr. Dalton

Is not this a serious reflection on the efficiency of the Colonial Office?

Hon. Members

Speak up.

Sir John Haslam

Is it right Mr. Speaker, for the hon. Member and the right hon. Gentleman to carry on a private conversation across the Table?

38. Mr. Riley

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the present approximate population of Jamaica, giving the numbers of white and coloured, respectively; and the franchise qualification for voting for members to the legislative council and the number of registered electors, white and coloured, respectively?

Mr. MacDonald

The population of Jamaica was estimated in 1936 to be 1,138,558. No estimate was then made of the proportion of white to coloured population. The franchise qualifications involve considerable detail, and, with the hon. Member's permission, I will circulate them in the OFFICIAL REPORT. The number of registered electors is 62,867, but I have no information as to what proportion of this total is coloured.

Mr. Riley

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that the proportion of registered electors to the population works out at one in 20, as against one in two in this country?

Colonel Wedgwood

Could the Royal Commission which is going out to the West Indies consider at the same time how the same problems are met in Martinique, where the franchise is very much wider?

Following are the franchise qualifications:

Any man who has reached the age of 21, and any woman who has reached the age of 25 and is literate, is qualified to vote in Jamaica providing he or she:

  1. 1. Is under no legal incapacity.
  2. 2. Is a British subject by birth or naturalisation.
    3. 373
  3. 3. Either
    1. (a) is in a parish constituting an electoral district on 31st of January in the year of registration, and has since 1st April preceding occupied as owner or tenant a dwelling-house or possessed real property in the parish rateable under the parish general rate; and has during that period paid taxes amounting to not less than 10s. in the case of men and in the case of women;
    2. (b) possesses personal property in respect of which not less than 10s. in the case of men and £2 in the case of women has been paid in taxes and resides within the division of the parish in which registration is claimed;
    3. (c) receives salary or wages total-ling not less than £50;
    4. (d) pays a rent of not less than £10 for a dwelling-house or tenement in which his or her business is carried on and receives an income of not less than £50 a year.

Persons are disqualified from being electors by:

  1. (1) Sentence to death, penal servitude, or imprisonment with hard labour or for a term exceeding 12 months (such sentence not having expired or been modified).
  2. (2) Receipt of parochial relief.
  3. (3) Failing to sign and date his or her registration claim in own handwriting.

39. Mr. Riley

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the percentage of literacy in the coloured population of Jamaica, the number of coloured children of school age, and the number of such children attending public and private schools?

Mr. MacDonald

In the absence of any up-to-date population statistics issued by the Jamaican Government, I regret that I am not in a position to answer these questions.