workingclasshistory:

On this day, 21 December 1939, a royal commission appointed by the British government to investigate and review poverty in British colonies in the Caribbean made their report. It had been commissioned in 1938 following a wave of strikes and rebellions in the area. However by the time it was completed Britain was at war with Germany, and the conditions the report exposed were so appalling that its publication was suppressed in order to prevent it being used as “enemy propaganda”.
In its conclusion, the Moyne report noted that “social services in the West Indies are all far from adequate for the needs of the population… Medical departments are handicapped by lack of funds, and far more attention has generally been devoted to the cure of disease then to its prevention. The diets of the poorer people are often insufficient and usually ill-balanced, although nutritious foods of all kinds necessary for health can be produced without much difficulty in almost every West Indian colony. The reason for this appears to lie fundamentally in the divorce of the people from the land without the provision of compensatory arrangements which would help to ensure adequate food supplies for the displaced population. Housing is generally deplorable, and sanitation primitive in the extreme”.
More information in this account of the struggles in the British Caribbean at this time: https://libcom.org/library/labour-rebellions-1930s-british-caribbean-region-colonies-richard-hart
Pictured: Caribbean workers’ housing at that time https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2166982560153549/?type=3