Mr. DUNNING:

That is the point. We paid off debt.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

Yes, quite so. There are two or three things we do

pay interest, pay dividends, and pay debt.

Mr. THORSON:

And -pay for imports, necessary imports too.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

Yes, but this is the credit balance over and above the payment for imports to which, I think, reference is being made. That is where our balance goes. It is of tremendous significance that Canada has to pay such huge debts, such huge interest, such huge dividends when at the same time many of our own people are unemployed and their families are suffering.

Mr. DUNNING:

My hon. friend will recognize that it was a good thing for Canadians to pay off outright last year something like $145,000,000 which they owed abroad. At least they will not have to pay interest on that much any -more.

mo

The Budget-Mr. Woodsworth

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

It is a good thing in itself. It is not a good thing when it had to be done at the cost it has involved to tens of thousands of homes in this country.

Mr. DUNNING:

But it is not the government that I am speaking of.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

Well, I am speaking of the government.

Mr. DUNNING:

The S145,000,000 was paid off by the Canadian people.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

Quite so-under arrangements that have been established by the government.

Mr. DUNNING:

No, no.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

We try to get decent amounts paid to the unemployed; we try to get decent wages for employed people; we try to get adopted various schemes that will raise a little higher the standards of living of our people, and had those standards been raised a little we should not have been able to pay off so large an amount of our debts; I think that is true.

Let me turn to another matter which perhaps throws some sidelight on our foreign investments. A few weeks ago a labour deputation from Cuba came to see me. Unfortunately I have not been able to check the statements they made, because our bureau of statistics can give very little detailed information with regard to foreign investments; but according to this delegation almost a hundred million dollars are invested by Canadian interests in Cuba. The delegation made this statement:

The Royal Bank of Canada controls more than eleven sugar mills through the Sugar Plantation Operating Company; the Bank of Nova Scotia controls three sugar mills and the Canadian Bank of Commerce controls Central Covadonga sugar mill.

Canada is the fifth buyer of Cuban sugar; the United States, Great Britain, France and Belgium are first in importation in order as set above.

Although there is a law setting a minimum wage of 80 cents per eight hours, due to the help given by the army to the large sugar interests, they pay only 25 to 40 cents per day of eleven or twelve hours and labour cannot protest.

Workers are paid chiefly in vouchers and script money good only at the company general store, with prices 10 to 20 per cent above prevailing prices in nearby towns.

The military dictatorship has continuously increased its stranglehold on the Cuban people with the help of powerful United States, British and Canadian financial interests who use him as a tool to force labour and others to work for practically nothing.

Mr. DUNNING:

What is the hon. gentleman quoting from?

[Mr. DunningJ

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

I am quoting from a memorandum which was presented to me by a delegation of Cuban labour people.

Mr. DUNNING:

Cuban?

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

Cuban, yes. I am

giving this as a side light on our foreign investments and what they may really involve. We have -Canadian banks chartered primarily to do business in this country but doing business abroad. Not only have we low standards of living in Canada, but if this statement is at all correct, Canadian institutions are assisting in keeping down the poorer people of other countries as well.

Mr. DUNNING:

Has the hon. gentleman

verified those statements?

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

If the minister had been following closely he would have observed that I said I had not had an opportunity to check carefully the financial side of this matter, since our own bureau of statistics had no accurate information with regard to the details of foreign investment. I suggest that the Minister of Finance ought to have control over investments made outside Canada.

Mr. DEPUTY SPEAKER:

I do not want to interrupt the hon. gentleman, but his time is up.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

May I have two

or three minutes longer?