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[[advertisement]] Now ... before the thousand-and-one distractions close in on you once more ... Public Opinion Kingston Please enter my name for that subscription I have long wanted to get but never got around to:– • Herewith 10/- for one year. • Please send your bill and remittance will follow in weeks. Name Address [[/advertisement]] [[advertisement]] Drink Coca-Cola TRADE MARK REG. Ice-Cold Delicious ... Refreshing [[image - drawing of hand holding a Coke bottle]] 3d. PER BOTTLE Authorized Bottlers J. S. WEBSTER & SONS BREEZY CASTLE, KINGSTON COPYRIGHT 1947, THE COCA-COLA EXPORT CORP. CC-N-22F [[/advertisement]] Trinidadians tear their hair? Spokesman Judah said certainly not, it would be something completely modern and up-to-the-minute. Having got the green light, JBC would shortly present a draft agreement for approval. In such a heavily loaded atmosphere, however, it would perhaps be better to drop the whole idea of a radio franchise, or at least shelve it until the air clears. In any event it would take a long time and much convincing official denying to erase the public's impression, wrong though it is, that Government had not leaned far over backwards in order to play ball with British capitalists. THE BAIT: DOLLARS There are enough edible fish in the Caribbean Sea to feed every fish-eating landlubber, enough commercial fish to supply the half of the hemisphere with codliver oil, fertilizers &c. But bringing fish to frying pan or factory is a big industry. In other parts of the world it employs millions of workers, makes millions in profits. In Jamaica, fishing is small-time. Spearheaded by jaunty, knowledgeable Secretary Austin J. Thomas, the Angling Association has long tried to develop it into bigtime for sport and profit. Thomas was probably on the point of despair when part of his dream turned to reality. Capt. B. R. Muir, a Scotsman who has spent some months angling in the abundant economic possibilities of a Jamaica-based fishing industry, decided last month to start West Indies Fisheries Co. WIFCo intends to draw its supply from areas charted in Professor Ernest Thompson's report on "The Fisheries of Jamaica", the series of "banks and cays stretching west-south-west from Jamaica through Pedro Cays to the Mosquito Coast of Central America ... the Caicos Islands and the Br. Honduras area." Of All Places. West Indies Fisheries told interviewers, would be a heavy money earner. But the first step after announcing the company's formation, was dollar expenditure to the tune of $25,000 for fishing boats & gear from, of all places, the U.S.A. Up to Dec. 20, Capt. Muir was still waiting on his 5-mth.-old application. No dollars, no equipment, no WIFCo – except on paper. That would be the score if the dollar-tight Jamaica Government said no. And A. J. Thomas would return to dreamland to chafe afresh over a great industrial opportunity floating around. From the local market angle, WIFCo would be a godsend to housewives. In 1945 they bought all of 26 1/2 million lb. imported fish (avg. price: 1/1d p. lb.)* for which their Government paid a staggering £842,868. In September this year they were complaining that the fish was getting pretty poor. To get the dollars to set his company up in business, Muir would probably also have to buck the subtle unseen hand of the local "codfish interests" whose deadly harpoon has impaled several previous would-be competitors. * 3 million lb. less than in prewar '38 and costing 2-2/3 as much. 32 SPOTLIGHT, DECEMBER, 1948.
