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

whether it was a fact that the St. Kitts Sugar Industry had been generously
assisted by preferential tariff for many years. He then went on: If
the reply to Question one is in the affirmative, is it a fact that the annual
cash value of the preference enjoyed by St. Kitts Sugar Industry substantially
exceeds the cost of administration and expenditure in this
Presidency, to what extent?
The answer came at the next meeting held on October 20. It
stated that the colonial sugar industry as a whole and had been given the
benefit of a preferential duty in the United Kingdom and Canada for
many years. The reply went on give the tonnage of sugar exported for 5
years beginning 1932, and other relevant figures. In that year 19 327
tons were exported. Calculating the figure at five pounds per ton preference,
the industry enjoyed the value of $463 848, while Government
expenditure for that year was $404 400. The preference thus exceeded
the cost of administration and expenditure by $59 448. In 1934 when
27 615 tons of sugar were exported, the preference exceeded Government
expenditure by $217 075. It was made clear that the preference
obtained by the industry was the difference between the duty imposed
in the United Kingdom and in Canada on sugar imported from Dominions
and Colonies, and the duty on sugar imported from foreign countries.
On the heels of this reply, Mr. Manchester followed with another
question. It read: Is Government aware of the fact the rates of
wage paid to agricultural labourers connected with the sugar industry
have remained the same during the past six years and that wages paid
today are the same as those paid in 1931, the pre-preferential period?
The Head of the Government must have felt uneasy. The conscience of
the captains of industry and the moral sense of ruling authorities, as it
were, found themselves in the iron jaws of the powerful vice. The answer
sounded hollow. It pointed to the hand of the factory with the lion
share of the profits but could not say that the workers were not badly
squeezed. The official reply was as follows, The Government is aware
that the rates of wages paid to agricultural labourers have not been
increased generally during the past six years. During the last three
years, however, estates, have paid to their labourers a bonus amounting
approximately to one-third of the deferred payment made by the Sugar
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