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

nourishment among the masses, with all its related ills, is a social evil
now at a chronic stage...
In support of the League’s memorandum, its officers gave evidence
before the Moyne Commission on 22 nd December 1938. The
Commission spent nine days in the territory and heard evidence from
various other organisation and individuals. After fifteen months of investigations
both in London and throughout the West Indies, the Commission
submitted its report in December 1939 and this was presented
to the British Parliament in July 1945. It advocated an orderly plan for
settling considerable numbers of people on the land as small holders
and providing them with certain forms of assistance. Mixed farming
was strongly urged. The Commission also advised caution with regard
to the system of land-holding as well as to other factors on which the
success of land settlement depended. The recommendation were
(a) That the order of procedure should be, first, the improvement
of husbandry of existing small holders … then the improvement of
existing land settlements and the establishment of new settlements;
(b) That Government should not regard themselves as committed
to the grant of freehold tenures, but should experiment with free-hold
and lease hold tenures. The grant of freehold rights should be subject
to appropriate conditions to prevent fragmentation of the land and to
suitable safeguards of good husbandry including the prevention of erosion
and the maintenance of soil fertility.
(c) That Government should take powers for the compulsory acquisition
of agricultural land needed for land settlement and similar
purposes;
(d) That it should be firmly impressed on settlers and others that,
while credit facilities will generally be required in the early stages of
any scheme of land settlement, their success depends in the last resort
on their own exertions and that Government cannot continue to provide
financial support indefinitely.”.
Still another Hurdle
Despite these recommendations, there was yet more trouble ahead. In
that year the Leeward Islands Legislature enacted laws regarding the
acquisition of land for public purposes. The law provided that the authorities
may declare that any land was required for a public purpose.
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