2 BRITISH GOVERNMENT REALIZES ITS MISTAKES

In June 1934 the first party of managerial and administrative staff landed at the site on the Alexis River. J O Williams had set up his logging camp by hiring 520 men from nearby communities and unemployed men from the island of Newfoundland who came on government passes to cut and export pit props to South Wales. He showed that some sort of permanent employment in addition to the cod fishery was possible in the area, and he brought Newfoundlanders and Labradorians together which, in some cases, resulted in matrimony. It was reported that there were 70 families in Port Hope Simpson in 1934.
Within one month, however, by 26 July 1934, 225 lumbermen of the Labrador Development Company returned to St John’s because they were dissatisfied with their working conditions. Although the men were keen to work they found poor accommodation and little food. The company controlled everyone through the very strict manager and because Williams prohibited any buying and selling outside his store.(Although one enterprising local did bring a boatload of goods upriver to Port Hope Simpson, moored offshore and proceeded to do a brisk trade before he was stopped.) Workers were paid from $1.75 to $2.00 per cord of pit-props, using a bucksaw for 12 hours per day. They were put on rations of mostly beans and porridge and bought deteriorating food from the company store. Men had to go out hunting to obtain sufficient food for themselves and their families. They came with dreams of prosperity but soon realized that conditions were the same as the fishery. They were always in debt.
By 30 July 1934 Police Superintendent O’Neil had investigated the complaints of the 225 lumber men and declared that there were no valid grounds for the strike although it was admitted that the preparations for the 500 men were inadequate when they arrived. On the 23 August 1934 Simpson wrote that he,

“…went to the Alexis River, where the Labrador Development Company has started timber operations. There I christened their headquarters‘Hope Simpson’ (Port Hope Simpson) – at their request”.[6]

Sir John Hope Simpson had made the mistake of taking the Labrador Development Company too much to his heart. He had allowed his sentiments to cloud his judgment and compromise his official duties as a commissioner when he agreed to the site being named after him: an act that left him, the commission and the British government wide open to a strong allegation of favouritism in their dealings with Williams. 14 months later, on 27 October 1935, Sir John Hope Simpson offered his resignation on the grounds of the weak political standing of the commission.
In a similar vein, J O Williams in 1944 was to describe his own sentimentality as a personal weakness in appointing Keith Yonge as manager of his company in Port Hope Simpson. He justified the appointment to himself because he thought the old friendship between Eric and Keith would be sufficient on its own to carry them over any differences of opinion they may encounter. It was on that basis that Eric was sent out by his father in 1939 to review and report back to him about what was going on at Port Hope Simpson.
Sir John Hope Simpson had been misled into recommending J O for his first colonial fund development loan on the understanding that 400 houses would be built as a basis for a permanent settlement. Lodge had described Williams as one third businessman, one third speculator and one third visionary after they had first met.But, five years later, Lodge was openly critical that Whitehall had firmly refused to think out fundamentals about the commission or about avoiding any risks of criticism in the House of Commons. He believed they had in fact followed such a course of action to evade the need for discussion about how the government allocated its money, as in the case of funding for the Labrador Development Company, from the colonial development fund instead of from other sources. There also remains the question to this day about how the need for a public enquiry into the affairs of the Labrador Development Company (published as a report by Chief Justice Brian Dunfield, 12 May 1945) managed to pass through the House of Commons only in the form of a written answer.