§ 56. Mr. D. Jonesasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what amount per unit is now paid into the Sugar Welfare Fund and what effect the reduction in price in 1955, as compared with 1954, will have on the amounts paid into the Welfare Fund.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe amount is 10s. a ton, except in Jamaica, where it is at present 7s. 6d., and St. Kitts, where it is £1. The amount is not affected by the negotiated price under the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement.
§ 57 and 58. Mr. D. Jonesasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies (1) the reasons for a lower price being fixed for sugar under the Commonwealth Agreement in 1955; and whether he is aware that wages and conditions of employment on the plantations are already bad;
(2) What effect the reduction in the price paid for sugar under the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement will have on the wages paid to, and the conditions enjoyed by, the workers on the West Indian sugar plantations.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe slight reduction in the negotiated price for Commonwealth sugar in 1955 was based on the agreed price formula which takes into account many items of the producers' 45W costs besides labour. There was, in fact, no significant movement shown this year in the index of wages and salaries. Wage rates in the Commonwealth sugar industries are negotiated separately in each territory by representatives of the employers and the sugar workers.