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

The three-men commission first set foot on St. Kitts on 23 rd November
1932 on their way to Antigua, the seat of Government of the Leeward
Islands. They motored around the St. Kitts and met Executive Councilors
at Government House. Five days later their opening meeting was
held in Antigua. Governor T. R. St. Johnston introduced the members.
General Sir Charles Ferguson, Chairman of the Commission, commanded
the Fifth Division and subsequently the 17 th Army Corps during
the First World War (1914-18). After the armistice he was made
Governor of the occupied German territories and later Governor-
General of New Zealand where he gained personal experience in civil
administration. Mr. Mc Neil Campbell, the Secretary, was an official in
the West Indian Department of the Colonial Service.
Back Ground
In welcoming the Commission, the Governor mentioned the events
which had led up to it. He cited the world wide financial depression of
1931; the prolonged drought in the Caribbean and low crop prices; the
strain on British finances to supply grants in aid to assist administrations
and to relieve distress in the Islands; the need for effecting economies
by linking up the Leewards, the Windwards and Trinidad.
The Governor recalled that in 1670 the Leewards were formed
into a separate colony which excluded Dominica. In 1832 after a brief
period when St. Kitts and the Virgin Islands were split off, it was reformed
with the addition of Dominica, and in 1871, exactly 200 years
after its first formation the Leeward Islands were made, in definite form
a “Federated colony.”
At St. Kitts
The first meeting in St. Kitts was held at the Court House on December
5 th . Among other things the Chairman of the Commission said, The
object of this meeting is merely to give us an opportunity of explaining
to you the terms of reference under which we are to act, and also of outlining
the sense in which we regard those terms of reference. I hope
that it is needless to say that in my remarks there will be nothing
whatever of a controversial character - absolutely nothing; and it is for
that reason that I suggest that any further speeches would be undesirable
and indeed really out of the question ...
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