PROGRESS IN JAMAICA
By AUSTIN WILLIAMS
THERE is, and should be, a growing concern about the political development and economic welfare of the various colonies, not yet self-governing, for which this country holds a moral trusteeship. But concern can only be effective if it is based on a knowledge of what is happening in dependencies like Nigeria, or Kenya, or Jamaica, or Mauritius, and that knowledge is, on the whole, less extensive than it might be. There is, therefore, particular reason 13 welcome the release by the Colonial Office of a report throwing light on the progress of an important social experiment in one colony, Jamaica, which is just taking constitutionally a substantial step towards full autonomy. The Jamaican scheme of officially-aided land-settlement, which has now been in progress for four years, is the most comprehensive attempt so far made in a British colony to transfer large groups of workers from towns where they were swelling the unemployed population to small holdings where they may engage in agriculture. Even the largest plantations could not absorb all the labour offered, and even their demand was seasonal at best ; moreover, it is recognised that agriculture must continue to be the vital industry of the island, and the provision of security for those who take part in it must be of chief concern to the Government. When self-government is approaching the urgency, of course, is all the greater.
Self-government, to have any hope of success, must be grounded firmly in financial and economic self-sufficiency. The Colonial Secretary is reported as having said as much at a recent conference at Lagos, and it may be assumed that the British Government does not intend to risk the economic future of any colony by conceding self- government before self-sufficiency is in sight. Lord Halley, that -experienced Imperial administrator, not long ago told the Royal Society of Arts: "If we hold seriously to our ideal of self-government
for the colonies, then we must work consciously towards a situation in which they will be far less dependent on the supply of capital from us ; but that will not be the result of any single measure." This last phrase has more implications than the financial. Together with the land-settlement programme—indeed, largely as a result of it—Jamaica has found it possible to make a number of experiments in the spirit and practice of co-operation with the object of enhancing social welfare. To borrow from Lord Hailey again, expenditure on health and educatiork in the colonies is remunerative not only in the moral but also ultimately in the monetary sense. The whole of current policy in Jamaica, therefore, economic and social, is linked together in its practical direction ; it is of the. utmost value in preparing the way for autonomy which shall work out happily from the start ; and it satisfies the only honourable conception of Imperial philosophy by placing at the head of all motives the desire to benefit the colonial population. • The Jamaica Lands Department was reconstituted in 5938. In four years, at a cost of about £800,00o, it had placed z6,000 people.
(all of them, of course, from the native population—none of them whites) on the land as smallholders cultivating between them 75,000 acres. Many of them came from the overcrowded urban district of Montego Bay and had never previously lived or worked in rural surroundings. For these people training centres were established where instruction was given in modern agricultural practice ; settlers' associations and welfare centres rapidly followed. The island was divided for purposes of the programme into five administrative districts which, it was found, kept fairly level in the demands of their population for settlements.
Each volunteer was allowed to apply for any extent of land between three and fifty acres. He paid one-tenth of the purchase price on application, unless he happened to be one of the urban unemployed, in which case the deposit was waived. The balance was due in instalments over ten years, but possession was taken of the territory almost as soon as the surveyor had finished his report, even before the titles of transfer were completed. This allocation of land to unemployed persons proved one of the most interesting features of the scheme, for its result showed that the Government was not pursuing a policy of ideals in face of practical disadvantages. These unemployed workers were placed on their holdings for a probationary period, during which it was found that nearly 50 per cent. were likely to make successful cultivators, but the rest would prefer working for wages, and would be more useful so.
Most settlers are short of money, and have a variety of problems which can be solved only with the help of the Lands Department and the Agricultural Department. A great deal of research has been carried out to provide data from which the growers can calculate yield and value of crops ; a system of co-operative market- ing is being devised ; the possibility of restoring the coffee industry and of furnishing the equipment for processing being considered ; the settlers are encouraged in their early days to build roads, for which they receive payment to help them over the unproductive period ; there are plans for a form of financial assistance, so that all settlers may at once build houses for their families on the newly acquired land. Above all, there are the developments of social amenities, the cost of which was deemed by the Government at the beginning of the land settlement programme to be a necessary charge on public funds. Not only have centres been established for the promotion of health, welfare and educatioN, but there has been a deliberate policy of encouraging the settlers to do as much as possible by voluntary collaboration to add to their social resources. In its bearing on the constitutional question, this is the most significant part of the enterprise.
The land-settlement associations, which have grown to nearly a hundred within four years of the start of the movement, are becoming the hubs on which all social and economic activities of the settlements turn. They provide the most convincing demonstra- tion that the settlers have learnt the value of both free discussion • and united 'action. They prove that isolated and intensely indi- vidual owners of property may acquire the consciousness of belonging to a group. They serve as points of assembly for sport and recreation by large numbers of people at the same time. In every way they yield opportunity for the most comptete training in the art of self-government among one of the most vital and valuable groups in a colony which may soon be achieving self-government on a broader plane. It seems scarcely extravagant to claim, as does the report from which these particulars are taken,' that acquisition of land may already have taken on a wider meaning than speculation and self-advancement by the individual, and become part of a co- operative movement for the physical, social, educational and spiritual advancement of the community as a whole. Jamaica may well form a model for other colonies in which the general conditions are sufficiently similar.
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