§ 43. Mr. Dribergasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what steps are being taken to encourage the expansion and modernisation of the sugar industry in Jamaica, with a view to lessening the United Kingdom's dollar expenditure on sugar imports and to providing more employment for Jamaican workers in better conditions than in the past.
§ Mr. Rees-WilliamsSince 1947, compulsory contributions from the export price of sugar have been paid into three funds. These are a Price Stabilisation Fund, a Rehabilitation Fund to encourage improvement of capital equipment and a Labour Welfare Fund. These funds tend to create stability and encourage increased production. Money paid to these funds and to certain other funds for development of the industry, for example, for research, is free of Income Tax. Every assistance is given to the procurement of machinery for the industry; tractors have been exempted from import duty. His Majesty's Government have undertaken to find a market for all Jamaica's export of sugar till the end of 1952. Production has increased.
§ Mr. DribergWhile thanking my hon. Friend for that very informative answer, may I ask him whether the Commission which is inquiring into the sugar industry in other parts of the West Indies will include Jamaica in its terms of reference? Is my hon. Friend also aware that many thousands of workers in this industry are still housed in disgracefully insanitary barracks?
§ Mr. Rees-WilliamsI should require notice of the first part of my hon. Friend's supplementary. As to the second, I am aware that housing conditions in Jamaica leave much to be desired.
§ Mr. StanleyIs there not a fear in some quarters that use of the most recent machinery on sugar estates might lead to increased unemployment among sugar workers at a time when their absorption in other industries is almost impossible?
§ Mr. Rees-WilliamsI believe that fear has been expressed, but to what extent it is justified I cannot at this moment say.