, 1963-03-30
Page
LEGISLATIVE RECORD
Continued
Remarks by MR.. ALEXANDER

s.l made a KIND OF survey ny doh1IlS W1AaC - 80
reasons for the opposition, and | have now come up WIN
the following reasons that were given that | now have
been able to analyze and I think that there are aDouE
four of them. It seems to me that a certain group are
afraid Of Harvey coming to the Island OF st. CrolX pc
cause the officials Of this company have an entirely oil
ferent religious belief to what most OF them have. VI
course. this is really ridiculous because the Schenley
Distillers Corporation who have an entirely dlHefen1
RELIGIOUS belief to what we have in the island are oper-
,+ino there the two distilleries and their employees are
all Gentiles, dispite the fact that the head OF their Cor
poration NAV be of a contrary religious belief.
The next reason given is the question Of wages that
might be offered might conflict with the wages belng
paid now by the hotels and guesthouses, which would
naturally affect the matter of alien help around these
hotels and guest houses. My reply to that would be thai
| don't think from information that Harvey ALUMINIUM
officials gave about the 400 employees to be employed,
that they would completely absorb all the working peo-
ne in the island of st. Croix, because they said 400.
And of this 400, 200 have to be in unskilled labor, while
the others have to be in seml-sk1ned and skilled LABOR
The third reason that | found was that the real estate
agents are opposed to that because they believe It Will
create a shortage in the matter OF obtaining land that
they MIGHT sell for future hotels or for intended resi-
dents who intend to come to live in the islands; that the
operation Of a plant like this might be q hazard or al
feet the people living in the vicinity OF where this cor
poration intends to establish.
Mr.. Chairman, you are as well acquainted with the
size Of the Island of st. Croix as | am. The Islands OF
St. Croix is at least IS square miles. Ana IL you were
to take a car and drive from the airport south contlnu.
inc all the way until you get to Fairham you will see
that the island of St. Croix can take in four Harvey Alu-
minum Plants muchless one. There is adequate land
over there for three or four other factories of it's size
to be established without interfering with any residents
who are now residing there or who have built their
dwelling homes there. As a matter Of fact I've pointed
out to the people Of St. Croix that if the people IN St.
Thomas had adequate acreage or area 1t appears that
we would not even have heard Of Harvey Aluminium
coming to the island of St. Croix.
Now the fourth reason is that they fear that Harvey
Aluminium will become a giant and will control the po-
ltical atmosphere of the entire island by controlling
the electorate and by debating to them what they
should do or what they should not do and naturally, a
fear arises as Harvey will be a dictator. Now this is
simply ridiculous, fantistc, as you know as well as !
know that would never have any effect at all on the
electorate. I think that is really something really ridic-
ulous to think about, that it would have such an effect
on them, and I'm sure that Harvey themselves are not
going to use any undue political influence they could
hove IN thn circumstances of the PEOPLES political state.