PETITION

1.1          In 1968 Queen Elizabeth II invested in a cotton plantation in Scott, Mississippi.

We, the undersigned, call on the Commons Public Accounts Committee to request that Elizabeth II fairly compensate the Black cotton pickers whose underpaid toil on that cotton plantation enriched Her Majesty.

BACKGROUND

2.1          In 1968 Elizabeth II bought, through Courtaulds in which she had a majority shareholding, a 38,000 acre cotton plantation at Scott, Mississippi in the United States. It became known as The Queen's Farm.

2.2          The value of The Queen's Farm increased significantly before it was sold. The underpaying of hundreds of African-American cotton pickers was an essential factor in the economic model.

CONCLUSION

3.1          It is incumbent on Elizabeth II to fairly compensate the Black cotton pickers whose underpaid labour on The Queen's Farm from 1968 onwards ensured Her Majesty a profit.

3.2          We ask the Commons Public Accounts Committee to determine a just amount of compensation for each surviving cotton picker of The Queen's Farm and to identify all those eligible.

Compensation should be paid to the nearest surviving relative or descendant of an eligible cotton picker where the eligible cotton picker is now deceased.

3.3          We call on the Public Accounts Committee to request that Elizabeth II hand the Committee a suitable sum by which to fairly compensate all eligible former cotton pickers. The Committee to disburse the same.

ADDENDUM                                                                                     

U.S. Subsidies to Queen's Farm

Washington (AP)

A Mississippi farm in which the queen of England has a financial interest received hefty price support payments in 1969 and 1970, the House has been told.

Rep. Silvio O. Conte (R-Mass.) cited the case in support of his amendment to put a ceiling on price support payments to individual farms. The amendment was adopted.

Large payments, Conte said, "go to many unusual farm factories including heavy payments to a farm in which the queen of England and her family are major investors."

The farm in Bolivar County received subsidy payments of $731,772 in 1969 and $615,000 in 1970, Conte said.

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AP report, 25 June 1971

US Dept of Agriculture subsidy payments to The Queen's Farm were also addressed by Senator Thomas McIntyre