Sugar Industry (Subsidy) (Hansard, 21 June 1944)

HC Deb 21 June 1944 vol 401 cc181-3 181

§ 31 and 32. Mr. Gallacher
asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies (1) what is the total amount of the subsidy given this year to the sugar industry in the island of Trinidad; and what proportion of the total amount will go to the II big sugar companies and to the 14,000 182 small cane farmers, respectively; and (2) whether, in view of the heavy exependiture incurred from public revenue to subsidise the sugar industry in the island of Trinidad, the industry will be made to pay the wage increase demanded by the sugar workers' trade union.

§ 35. Mr. Thomas Fraser
asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will consider attaching conditions to the payment of financial assistance to the Trinidad sugar industry to ensure adequate minimum wages for the workers, to limit the hours of labour and to require the big growers to provide improved housing for resident workers.

§ Colonel Stanley
As the answer is necessarily long, I am circulating a statement in the UFFICIAL REPORT.

§ Mr. Gallacher
While I agree about reading the answer in HANSARD, I would ask the Minister if, instead of financing these companies, it is not time the Colonial Government took them over and ran them, not in the interests of profit-makers, but in the interests of the people of the area?

§ Colonel Stanley
I think the hon. Member should have a talk with his hon. Friend behind him on the merits of private enterprise.

§ Mr. Neil Maclean
Will the Colonial Secretary inform the House whether this is not a case of the Government having to finance private enterprise?

§ Following is tire statement:

§ Particulars of the subsidy payable to the sugar industry in Trinidad this year were given in the answer to the hon. Member for Hamilton (Mr. Thomas Fraser) on 7th June. I regret that I have no information as to the proportion of the total amount of this assistance which will go to the sugar companies and to the small cane farmers respectively but I will ask the Acting Governor to furnish these details. The whole object of this assistance is to improve the efficiency of the industry, which has been affected by war conditions, and to encourage the return to it of workers to meet the present urgent demand for increased production. The industry is being required to adopt the principle of payment of output bonuses to workers as a condition of the grant of assistance; but to compel them to grant a 183 wage increase would not necessarily achieve the object in view, since experience has shown that there is a general tendency amongst workers to reduce the number of days worked if higher rates are paid. The report of the local committee called attention to the need for improved housing and suggested that the output bonus might be issued in the form of housing certificates, to be used in purchasing houses in a subsidised housing scheme. In present circumstances the Government of Trinidad were not able to make this a condition of the grant of assistance.