Criticism “misleading”

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33957, 25 September 1975, Page 9

Criticism “misleading”

Criticisms of the tele-|| vision documentary, "Tea: i the Deadly Cost,” by Mrh John Rimington, a former h tea plantation manager, gave! I a quite misleading impres-1 sion of the report of theb British Parliamentary delega-.i tion which had investigated' tea plantations in Sri Lanka, i; the. CORSO regional organiser in Christchurch (Mr R. I; A. Consedine) says in a' statement. 11 “The companies and coun-' tries that have milked Sri ! Lanka for more than 100'1 years have no moral right to I walk out taking their pro-! fits, and then turn around:i and point the finger,” heli said. ji It was not only the tea l !

'pickers that were left! impoverished by the tea ; : companies, but the whole of; 'the Sri Lankan economy.! Nationalisation had cost the! tea companies only the part)! I of the industry which was! unprofitable anyway. ! “Many people now expect! ! an impoverished govern-! Iment to take over and imI prove conditions on the es- : ! tates after decades of neglect by the companies.” I Mr Consedine said that i Mr Rimington seemed to 'have quoted very selectively I from the report. ! “If anything, the report is . even more disturbing than I the film itself. The six BritI ish Ministers of Parliament I found that a typical tea es- '

fate family of husband, wife and three children could not ; even earn sufficient money ! to buy the items in the standard Government food ration. ! "This finding depended op the rather generous as- : sumption that the husband. ■ and wife managed to get 25 days’ work in a month,” he said. The M.P. had found lie situation of the children on the tea estates to be “very unsatisfactory.” Malnutrition, hookworm, and iron deficiency were wide-spread. The annual rate of infant mortality was Illa 1000, as against a country-wide figure of only 47 a 1000, Mr Consedine said.