Through the 20th century with the Gleaner - The Lord Moyne Commission (part 3) By C. Roy Reynolds,
Contributor
THE MOYNE Commission was quick to establish that while it may have welcomed written submissions and oral evidence of conditions in Jamaica, it was even more determined to see things for itself. So after hearing evidence pertaining to agriculture from former Director Barnes at the Constant Spring Hotel on November 2, 1938 it was back in the field the next day. Setting out in two groups, members of the commission toured a cordage factory in the May Pen area, tobacco growing project in the Milk River area, several citrus farms; the Grove Place station as well as Holmwood. During the trip they not only concerned themselves with the agricultural aspect of what they saw, but delved into the social situation as well. They were reported by The Gleaner of November 5 to have observed what the workers ate, even peering into the pots, washroom facilities, and even the toilets provided for them. But it was on the next day's tour of the slums of Kingston that they would come to face with the squalor and privation under which so many of the people lived. The Gleaner of November 7 opened its coverage of the Kingston tour with the following paragraph: "That housing and living conditions in the slum areas of the city are deplorable, disgusting and depressing was the unanimous opinion of the Royal Commission after a morning's tour of the very worst places, including Dung Hill in West Street, Smith Village, Trench Town, Back-O-Wall, Callalu Alley, Ackee Walk and Maranga Lane." Nothing to wear or eat Lord Moyne and his colleagues split into groups as they toured these mean places of Kingston. In Salt Lane he was reported to have taken a keen interest in a little boy described in the report as "covered with a dirty network of knots and patches." The boy was said to have told Moyne that he had not been to school for six months, because he had nothing to wear or eat. A handcart man "barefoot and with the unmistakable signs of ill-health" told the Commissioner that he was unable to work or find work and that he and his woman were existing on the three shillings per week she earned. Worse, he was about to lose his miserable shelter because he could not afford to pay the rent. Further enquiry brought out the fact that in that slum there was a system of land rental which inflated the cost to the single individual as one agent would rent an entire area; this agent would subdivide the area and sublet and so on down the line to the man with the little lot for his hovel. Since everybody speculated down the line the burden fell heaviest on the man at the bottom, like the sick handcart man mentioned earlier. Now, he told the Commissioner that he was facing the loss of his little shack as eviction was the established practice in such circumstances. It was a town entirely without pity. The Commissioner even observed that these slumlords and sub-lords would provide just one three feet by three feet and four feet high pit toilet per 20 people and in some cases not even this was provided. The conditions led former Governor Sir Edward Stubbs, vice chairman of the commission, to observe: "I knew there were some very bad places in the slums during my time here. I see there has been no change at all." Commission member Mrs. Asheteon observed: "This is most depressing!" and Dr. Mary Blacklock lamented: "I do not see how general health conditions can be improved until the housing problems are dealt with." About the only thing to give some relief to the depression they felt at what they had seen that day was the blueprints for a housing scheme in Trench Pen. They expressed some optimism as well from observing the efforts made by some of the slum-dwellers to keep their surroundings clean and expressed the view that "under different circumstances the same people could and would become very worthy citizens." That afternoon a party of Commissioners left by car to travel across the island to the north side where the Commissioner's yacht was expected to meet them, take them aboard and sail on to Port Antonio where they would see conditions for themselves. They were to then change places and the party which came by land was to return by sea and vice versa.
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