COST OF LIVING IN JAMAICA
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—With regard to the letter of Mr. Leslie Webb on Cost of Living in Jamaica, I think it was clear from the context of my former letter that I was referring to the cost of living in the island I know best. Indeed some of your readers so read my letter and have written asking for particulars.
The cost of living for Europeans in certain large towns in certain islands is as Mr. Webb states, but in the majority of the smaller islands as I state. A labourer in a large town requires a good wage, a decent dwelling. A labourer on some estates where he has land to cultivate, firewood at hand, a good village school for his children, certain fruits for the gathering, is certainly on a wage of 8s. to los. a week as well off as an agricultural labourer in England on 32s. 6d. a week after paying house rent.
My 'point was, it is dangerous to be dogmatic, to condemn every hard-working, struggling- planter.
I have no financial interests in the West Indies. I like the coloured population and have, I hope, friends among them but many of the articles appearing in the British Press at present are dangerous and lead to the .idea that only by rioting can justice be obtained. Strikes are very often brought about by the hooligan element intimidating contented workers under good employers. A riot in the West Indies is a dangerous matter and endangers the lives of white men, women and children. These people are not bloated capitalists, they are certainly not indifferent to the needs of the coloured people any more than is Mr. Norman Manley, K.C.
If the white planter is driven out of the West Indies by his position becoming too difficult and by being ruined financially, the coloured population will be the first to suffer. Nor are our Colonial administrators on the spot indifferent to the needs of the coloured population, and in this connexion I would com- mend to the notice of your readers a recent article in The Times by Sir Selwyn Grier, whose sympathy for all classes in the West Indies is well known. Such men can only cure existing evils if the British people are behind them and our Press shows
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