Parliament and Trinidad In the debate on the Trinidad report
initiated by the Labour Party in the House of Commons on Monday the Government secured a majority of 93, which on the merits of the case it by no means deserved. For a part, and a large part, of responsibility for last year's labour troubles in the island undoubtedly belongs to the Government. It is clear that the colony had for years suffered from inefficient and inactive administration, which should not have been allowed to continue unchecked ; and Mr. Leech for the Labour Party reminded the Government that weeks befog: the troubles broke out he had asked for the dispatch of a Commission. But an even larger share of responsibility must be assigned to employers in the colony for the intolerable labour conditions which prevail there and which were the direct cause of the riots. It is difficult to agree with the censure passed on the late Governor, who inherited a position in which good Government had become almost impossible ; he and his officers may have failed to shoot on a justly enraged mob, but, unlike the employers, the Colonial Office or the British Government, he had at least succeeded in appreciating the true causes of their discontent.
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