(2 of 2)
While Jamaica strove to cut its imports, a rich new export was discovered almost accidentally. In 1942 a Jamaican rancher wondered why he could not grow grass on his estate near Saint Ann's Bay and sent a soil sample to a U.S. laboratory for analysis. The test proved that the soil was rich in bauxite, the source mineral for aluminum. Two U.S. aluminum companies (Kaiser and Reynolds) and one Canadian (Aluminium Ltd., known locally as Aljam) rushed in, staked out one of the world's biggest bauxite reserves, and are now shipping more than 2,000,000 tons a year to the U.S. and Canada.
Evident Virility. More profitable by far than any other industrial development is Jamaica's great tourist boom. Before World War II the island was little more than a cruise-ship stop. But postwar air travel has increased the traffic far beyond the island's capacity to handle it. A burst of hotel building at Montego Bay and Ocho Rios has raised Jamaica's hotel space to 3,000 first-class rooms priced up to $50 a day (double room, American plan) during the winter season. Even so, hotel owners turn down hundreds of applications every winter week (and are beginning to do a brisk summer trade).
Space not only for tourists but for its permanent residents looms as Jamaica's biggest problem in the future. The island's population is growing at the rate of 30,000 yearly, and even in these comparatively good times there are 100,000 people without land holdings or steady jobs. Birth control is ruled out because it goes against all tradition of Afro-Jamaican manhood: native males believe that the only true proof of virility lies in begetting as many children as possible.
Federation's Future. Chief Minister Manley firmly believes that Jamaica's economy can support the growing demand. He has launched an island-wide land reform program, buying land from big holders and distributing it to peasants. With irrigation projects, expert advice and new crops, he hopes eventually to make Jamaica's 2,000,000 tillable acres prosperously support 2,000,000 people. His slogan: "For every man an acre and for every acre a man."
Manley has another aim in making Jamaica a model Caribbean island. A start has already been made toward federation of Britain's Caribbean colonies (TIME, March 5), and Manley, who returned from London last week, envisions the day when all the colonies will be joined in a new British Commonwealth dominion. When that day comes (probably in 1958), Chief Minister Manley wants Jamaica to be the new nation's richest province—and, of course, its logical capital.
* But the Spaniards' Negro slaves, known as Maroons (from the Spanish cimarrones, meaning fugitive slaves), were unconquered, and fled to a remote area called the Cockpit Country, where their descendants still live.