[5] During the century since emancipation, the colonial government made minimal provisions that sought to limit agitation from labourers while taking greater measures to protect British interests and the plantation system.
[8] Following the period of apprenticeship, which ended in 1838, the planters faced an economic crisis that challenged the current agriculture system; it was solved by the onset of indentured servants who arrived mainly from India.
[11] Not only there was resistance from local elites but also rice growers had to contend with crop damage due to pollution from the nearby oil fields[11] Cultivation of agriculture alternatives was undertaken entirely by the poor peasant class on the small plots of land they had acquired.
The Great Depression made conditions in the West Indies much worse by a drastic decrease in exports and a sharp decline in the global price of sugar.
Coupled with the horrendous working and living conditions the labour riots that began in 1934, starting with Belize lumber workers and spreading through almost every British colony in the region by 1939.
[18] Florence Nankivell, the wife of the former Trinidad Colonial Secretary, acknowledged that the dire living conditions were the result of extremely low wages and offered her journals, which detailed West Indian's poor health, to the Commission as evidence.
[20] The relatively prompt arrival of the Moyne Commission to the British West Indies following the labour and civil unrest cannot be separated from the looming threat of war in Europe.
[26] Walter Citrine, however, finding the living conditions of the populace absolutely deplorable, aggressively aided the fledgling trade unions of the West Indies and there was considerable fear that he, acting separately from the commission, would ignite further riots.
Lord Moyne even agreed, at the urging of the War Office, to "moderate the tone" and to cut the "particularly dangerous sections", regarding the state of housing, women and children, from the final report.
[26] The Royal Commission's primary task was to simply be an objective group that could verify the need for financial aid to the Caribbean colonies and, in turn, gain popular support for the actions funded by the British government.
[26] After revealing the "canary in the imperial coal mine", the Moyne Commission urged health and education initiatives along with increased sugar subsidies to stave off a complete and total economic meltdown.
[35] Howard Johnson writes that the Colonial Office's response to the Caribbean crisis was to shift the revolutionary antagonism into peaceful reform by funnelling large sums of cash into the region.
With the recommendations of the Moyne Commission, the Colonial Development and Welfare Act was passed in 1940 to organize and allocate funds to the British West Indies for the purpose of long-term reconstruction.
No recommendations were made to address the stagnant economic system except to place greater emphasis on local food production and to build upon industries such as tourism, fishing and "craft earthenware".
[42] The Moyne Commission was positive that the lack of a "proper family" structure in the West Indies was responsible for the poverty, high rates of child mortality, venereal disease and general ill health that plagued the islands.
Singh asserts that its main goal in crafting the recommendations was to maintain the status quo, a region dependent on the metropole with labourers creating abundant affluence for the empire with minimal benefit for themselves.