JNF-The-Working-Class-Struggle-of-Half-a-Century

H.M.S. Leander arrived in the port and landed a party of marines to ensure
that the situation was under control.
However badly the workers were suffering from the hardship of
low wages, however grievous was the prohibition of Trade Unions in
St. Kitts, the law of the land had to be respected. Revolt against social
and economic conditions was the root cause of the riots. But the people
in high places who allowed those conditions to exist were not the ones
to answer for the disorder in the country. The law however took its
course. Several persons were arrested on riot charges. News of the
disturbance swiftly spread far and wide. Contact was made with Kittitians
abroad. They were deeply moved. A good many of them living
in New York were urged to take quick action. They felt themselves
bound to those at home by double ties - that of motherland and that of
common working class destiny.
In New York the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Defence Committee
was formed. Its primary task was to raise funds to provide legal assistance
for those who were held for court trial in St. Kitts. The committee
tackled the job with great zeal and it efforts were highly successful. At
the St. Kitts base, the Workers League had kept a watch over the whole
affair and gave all the help it could. The hands of the League and the
entire working population were tied to a great extent by the law which
kept the salvation of the Trade Unionism out of the country at that time.
When the fermenting situation exploded, the leaders of the
Workers League had to perform a multiple role. The three-year-old organisation
was fully occupied in the struggle for social and political
reforms in the territory. The 1935 eruption in the industrial sphere added
to the tremendous task. Only one member of the League was implicated
in the riot trials. He had joined the League just a week before the
disturbance and was charge with unlawful assembly.
The Circuit Court trials began on March 21 and ended on April
18. Thirty nine persons were charge. Six were convicted and sentenced
to imprisonment with hard labour. They were
John Palmer 5 years
Simeon Prince 5 years
127