Debate on the Address

Part of Orders of the Day — Queen's Speech – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 3 December 1954.

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Photo of Mr Hilary Marquand Mr Hilary Marquand , Middlesbrough East 12:00, 3 December 1954

I am glad to see that the right hon. Gentleman nods his agreement. My right hon. Friend the Member for Llanelly referred to the danger of a vacuum. There is an unfilled vacuum in British Guiana at the moment, and we cannot look forward with confidence to the proper planning of the development of that Colony until we get rid of the vacuum. We must get rid of it as soon as possible.

It would be appropriate if we could now clear up a little misunderstanding which seemed to exist in some of the newspapers about the statement that the right hon. Gentleman made on this subject.

The Robertson Commission, in its Report, as the right hon. Gentleman told the House on 2nd November: . … do not recommend a specific period, nor do Her Majesty's Government wish to be tied to one."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 2nd November, 1954; Vol. 532, c. 212.] That was misinterpreted somehow in some newspapers, because of what followed in the statement, as if the Government had said there could be no restoration of self-government in that territory for at least three years. The right hon. Gentleman did not say that, and I am glad to have his confirmation now, because with good progress it may be possible to restore self-government and reintroduce the Constitution in less than three years. We must strive with all our might to see that that is done if it is possible, to see where the deadlock can be somehow removed, because the big economic plans which are necessary to the development of this territory have been far too long postponed.

It is not that we do not know what to do, because it was all in the Hutchinson plan many years ago, but unfortunately a beginning has only recently been made in carrying out that plan; and it will take a very long time, I am afraid, according to the report of Mr. Frank Brown and Mr. Lacey, who investigated the situation a year ago, even to carry out the preliminary works necessary for the proper drainage of the coastal belt, without which no development is possible at all. Even the preliminary works will take five years to accomplish.

During that five years, at the present rate of increase in population, the population may become 50,000 larger than it is at the moment. There is not full employment—nothing like it—for the population on the existing land. How can there be in five years' time, if there are 50,000 people more, a better situation? There may be a worse. So the pushing forward of these plans is, perhaps, one of the most urgent tasks to be done in the whole of the Colonial Empire.

I believe that Sir Alfred Savage, than whom we have no better Governor anywhere among the Colonial Territories, is doing his best to expedite all these plans and to associate the people with the plans. I saw him trying to do so. I saw him addressing a meeting of the people, and mixing with the people. I heard broadcast relays of a journey he made to another part of the territory where he did the same thing.

I know of the magnificent job that was done by the Public Relations Officer and the Resident Tutor at the University College of the West Indies in seminars and the setting up of regional development committees. They held the seminars and published them in a large book, a copy of which I should like the right hon. Gentleman to place in the Library for other hon. Members to read. Splendid work is being done in the regional development committees in explaining to the people in detail what the plan is and allowing the people, in turn, to put their points of view, their criticisms, their constructive suggestions about their own localities.

I know, too, what the co-operators—and here I must say how much I welcome what the right hon. Gentleman said about them and our own Co-operative movement and its association with colonial development—are doing. I know there are 200 good, sensible societies in that country. I met their leaders. I visited one of the co-operatives and wrote an article afterwards about it in the "Co-operative News," which, I hope, may generate even greater interest in our own Co-operative movement in what can be done in these directions.

I know, too—and this is the most important of all—that in the seminar at University College in which I myself took part in Georgetown the new trade union movement showed itself active, eager and constructive. We had a seminar which lasted a week. There was 100 per cent. attendance throughout. Left-wing and Right-wing trade unionists were represented. They argued and discussed and did not always agree, but in a thoroughly tolerant, sensible and good humoured way, and they came to certain very interesting conclusions.

I know that all this is going on and is encouraged, and I was glad to give it some help, but I wonder whether the right hon. Gentleman is satisfied that in all these activities the Governor has available to him sufficient staff, not merely in quantity but also in quality, to back him up in these various endeavours. The need for rapid economic advance there is desperate. I used that word in an article I wrote for the "Manchester Guardian," and I meant it. I do think it is desperate, and I do think it will need an unusual addition of highly skilled technical people to the staff now available to accomplish it. If I could I would answer that question myself, but I cannot.

I was there only a week and can convey only an impression, but I heard on many occasions from the people themselves criticisms of the lower ranks of the administration. They voiced them during the seminars and it is all in the book. Is the right hon. Gentleman quite satisfied that there is a good staff there? I think that probably the C.D.W. allocation for the next two years is as much as the Colony can digest. I wish it were not. I wish it were feasible to give more, but what I am anxious about is that the job will be done properly.

For example, if farmers are to be placed on land in the new settlements will the land be fairly, openly and honestly allocated? There is obvious doubt among all those people whether that really does happen. It depends upon good administration. We cannot have proper development in any of these territories unless the people are associated with the plan. We cannot ever have successful self-government in those territories unless the people have previously learned the habits and practices of self-government by carrying out self-government in self-governing trade unions and co-operatives.

It is only recently that we have had in this country full universal adult suffrage—only in the last 30 years. Long before that, however, our people had learned self-government in trade unions and cooperatives. We have to hurry on, in a territory like that, this process of learning the habits and practices of direct self-government and it can be done through the freely chosen associations of the people, but the next thing after that is good administration.

I should particularly like to know whether it would be possible to ask Mr. Frank Brown, who made an admirable report on the possibilities of land settlement, and who has the great advantage of long experience in what has been our most successful agricultural development in a territory for which we have been responsible, the Gezira, to let himself be seconded to that Colony to see how his own report is being carried out. Would it be possible for Mr. Walker, a Colonial Office architect who has done magnificent, most remarkable work on housing, to stay a little longer and see the plan right through? Would it be possible to give the co-operatives and the trade unions the information they want?

They pleaded with me again and again, and have written me letters since on the subject, for information about trade union practice and co-operative practice in this country. The best way to convey that information is by mobile vans in cinemas. There are not enough in the territory. Could not more be sent out? Could they not be lent? Could not one be lent to the adviser whom the T.U.C. is to send out, and another to the adviser who, I hope, will be sent out, as I have pleaded that one should be, by the Workers' Educational Association?

Could not one be lent to the adviser, whom, perhaps, the Co-operative movement will send out? At any rate, could not one be lent to Mr. Gordon, the present Commissioner for Co-operatives? In these territories people have an immense amount of time on their hands. They work two or three days during the week, and the rest of the time remains without amusement of any kind. There are no cinemas or football matches to go to.

There is time to sit down and talk. There is time to read and to look at films. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will feel that that kind of thing would afford practical help to people very anxious to help themselves. They are not anxious to run after any particular ideology. They are anxious to get on to the land and go to work. I hope that my remarks may be noted and that some encouragement will be afforded to them. When people like us go out to these places it is greatly appreciated that we should say something about them in this Parliament, and that is my excuse for intervening in this debate.