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"That's the one, boys--we'll send that one in,”
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1953.
1 Bernard Wicksteed loarns what's' right about starboard on the big royal tour
London Express Bervice
Happy Setting For
Big Power Power
W
By ALLAN MURRAY
HETHER or not cannot hold all the officials who the Bermuda Con- are coming for the Conference. these will be billeted ference will have Most of
in the 700-bedroomed Castle
#happy nutrum & Harbour, a nearby hotel Just as
it has the happiest of set- well-equiped and nearly as ex-
tings. In this coral island lusive.
For the 100,000 tourists who Bermuda. every your.
community the world's sit
from workaday cares, And fur the residents tourism is bg business-virtually their only business.
problems seem remote. And the land is a place of escaur Bermudians have no great problems of their own.
This is an island with no party politics and no poverty, Inenme
unknown and there tax is practically no disease.
Seat of the Conference is ex- Mid-Ocean be proted to
the Chib
must exclusive in the Its annual subscription
1stund.
ין
15
£250, Outside
TII)
is
Inst year. whereas Brithin had seven tourists to the square
this Atlantic inlle,
pleasure island packed in 14,000 to the square mile. It is the biggest little dollar earner in the Cum- monwealth,
Dollars Galore
the cout. pillared Ninety percent of Its holiday- rooms where the Western leaders makers are Americans with are to discuss alirs of State, dollars to spend. And that's pink coral beaches slope down
how Bermuda makes a living. sea of limpid tur- quoise.
the distant boom of start. leisurely
tourists swing ther golf elbs on one of the world's best kept courses.
Finer of the golf course was Charles
Matr MacDonald, ather of American goll". Ite- silent professional IS Archie Compston, who once coached the Le King and the Duke Windsor.
of
Now the elegant three-storey clubhouse is to become the focus of the world's eyes. And that is something that -doosu't-- often
happen to Bermudu.
Close Secret
SIR Winston Churchill ore, but in the islund before, but his visit was kept a close secret. In 1942 he stayed at Government House on his way to the first Washington Conference,
Since then bath Mr Truman and Mr Eisenhower have visited the island on holiday-but never
The
to talk international affairs.
Now Bermuda has something really big to cater for, and it plans to do the job well. Living in the Mid-Ocean Club,
ittesmen and their top advisers will find amenities that few hotels can better. Sald one Bermudian: hear they're bringing French chefs; they're sure to learn something from the cooks at the Mid-Ocean."
With its 50 sumptuous bed- rooms this luxury establishment
labourer
Talks
Front Street, Bermuda
£12 a curns
week. But there is a snag for im
which means that the coloured migrants: to get a job you must
folk who make up two-thirds of bo either Bermudo-born or have the 38,000 inhabitants have little qualified for citizenship by to grumble about.
residence on the seven years' island, All of them own their houses
SO IT'S SOSH (INSTEAD OF ‘POSH') FOR THE QUEEN
W
month
HEN the
travela
in
liner Gothic
Queen and for another, you can see
the the ground better when you tre
coming in to land. this
on the tour that Tat is because aircraft bank will take her round the to the left as they elrele the
landing-ground. world, she will sleep on the starboard side of the ship.
or
or right hand B.O.A.CA not being na bound
by tradition äs the Navy pantomime, has compromised, If she didn't she would be On the light from London to breaking a tradition that in the Queen and the Duke will Bermuda and Jamalen (where one form or another is as board the Gothic) the Queen old as history itself. The will sit during the day on the right hand side of anything right (or starboard) side of the is the side of the good and side.
plane and sleep on the port
the left, is the side of evil or anyway the "not so good,"
In pantomime the Fairy Queen always comes in on the right and stays that side of the stage. But the King of the Demon's comes in on the left, as he did in old miracle plays.
I am an ex-R.A F. type my self, and I wouldn't dream of comparing the Royal Navy with a pantomine-but 1 musi pomi ou that they have this tradi-
Kieu in common.
IN
Senior side
TN the Navy the starboard is elled the renior, side of the ship. When the arimizat 19 aboard his flagship that is the side where he walks up and down when he ln't pacing the роор.
The captain and other lesser naicers Inust promenade te port, or, shiver
timbers, the admiral would setipper the lol!
ענה
While the Queen là on board, the Gothic Falls 35 B royal yacht, and naval traditions prevail. Starboard the side of good. And the port? Well, the Duke of Fellaburgh has to sleep on that side, so it can't b too bad.
The Gothic was originally prepared for King George VI. He was to have the starboard Apartments, and the present
those
the Queen Mother
port.
0:1
all the They had to switch furnishings round when a Queen became the Monarch.
in
Tradition is the samc
processions. Have
you ever noticed? The Queen siis on the right and the Duke оп the left.
IF you spend pound notes in the
-cool, white-roofed .villas of All of which makes the state shops of Front Street, Hamil ton-which is Bermuda's main pink and yellow coral-stone coloured Bermudian much betler which would make council of than his West Indian fellows thoroughfare -- you are, quite
house tenants Cnvious. Few 800 miles farther south. If you Likely to get your change in dollars and rents. But if you are a stering customer the law says you must turn in your dollars to the bank,
The shopkeepers pay theirs -in-every day. Last year--they brought to the British Treasury the useful sun of £8,000,000,
**** families are without a washing want to annoy_n Bermudian machine, none without a wire- call him a West Indian, In fact, less set, And many run their bis Island is nearer New York! wwn car. Bermuda haz no than to the British West Indies. rhanty towns. DO plantation lebour, Almost Ra only crop is Easter les-which go to the USA for dollars.------------
export
Self-governing |TH
Ambushed
THIS custom made more cer- tain the death of Sir Hairy Gurney, the High" Com=" DERMUDA is Britain's oldest misioner for Malaya, who was Even the colour bar is no real self-governing colony. First clled by bandlis in 1951. In fact, three currencies are problem. It is a matter of social discovered by a Spaniard-Juan legal tender in Bermuda. The
The status, Coloured people are not Bermudez, who gave it its name
ambush party knew island's notes are in sterling allowed in many of the island's it
British that, as the representative settled by under
Block to the clubs and hotels. But they have voyagers shipwrecked Island at the rate of 4,000 a year,
on its King, he would be sitting bring their own dollars. And their own, and there is no ill- barrier reef in 1800, They were the right in his ear, and they Amerkan greenbacks are every well for that.
feeling about it. They live ton on their way to the British hid on that side of the road. where.
For the fun-secking tourists scures of hotels--at there are rates from 18 shillings to £5 a
ference,
No Beggars
was
a
But just in case there is D Demon King in the clouds, spore divan has been fitted on the Fairy Queen side as well,
Port side
IN the old days, when ventila
tion on board ship wasn't too good, you tried to get cabin on the port side Icr journey to India, hd an the Partcam ride to come home. Then you didn't got the tropical afternoon
run making your •
cabin a furnace,
That is said to be the origin of POSH-Port Out Starboard Home. But on this trip the Queen must travel SOSI!-Star- board Out and Starbourd Home.
And the Duke? Well, he L ro stranger to naval tradition. He has got to like it and go POPH.
-(London Express Service)
of
оп
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
In Parliament the party. power sliy on the right-hand
in
Cokmy of Virginia, but stayed on the island instead.
Its Parliament is the oldest side of the Speaker. You groet in the Commonwealth except someone with your right hand. day. And they are never empty, TRAMP the 16-mile-long Island for Westminster. In its House A left-handed compliment is no for Bermuda's season lasts all from end to end, and you will of Assembly each of the 36 compilment at all, and a left-
no beckars the year round. Bustest time is find
or starving members has only parish prob-handed cath is not menat to ba Easter, but next month accom- children. Cycle along the narrow, lems to trouble him. Angry binding. modation will be harder to get leafy lanes, and you may meet words are often hurled across The starboard lights of a than usual, because of the Con- a durky housemaid going to the floor of the House, Seldom ship, are green, a colour that work in a taxi, if a Bermudian do they concern anything more stands for safely; and the port But it in't only tourists who goes barefoot, it's because he world-shaking than road repairs lights are red for danger. find contentment in this coral likes it that way,
or defects int the electricity island. For 38,000 Bermudians it Education too gives the supply
The tradition do:sn't seem to offers an easier life than most population no grumbles. Free From Ume to lime other apply to rullway trains. At countries can give their citizens, and compulsory between the toples arise. There was dis- least it didn't when the Royal Living costs are high, but 20 ages of seven and teen. It is appointment when the Royal Family toured South Africa in are wages. Even an unskilled open to all'alike.
1947. The private compart- ments were all on the left of the train and the corridors on the right. So they were on the Queen Mother's Rhodesian tour
The Mid-Occan Golf Club
Navy's island dockyard was dis- mantled in 1951,
and
again when the Army, garrison left last April,
Then there was excitement when a detachment of 250 Royal Welch Fusiliers were stalloned
this year.
I have just checked up with
in Prospect Barracks. They had B.O.A.C. to tze how it stands come, from Jamaica for Bie in the matter. Personally I postponed July Conference, com- always like to sit on the left plete with band and mascot-aide of a plane. For one thing Kort.
the door is always that side;
Predicament
ON arrival, they faced a pre-
dicament. For all the garri- son's stores had been auctioned last April, The islanders who had bought the crockery helped out by lending it back to the troops. Later the troops returned to Jamaica and Inat October helped to restore order in British Gulana,
The island's police force La only 100 strong, but the Con- ference delegations will bring their own security squads with them,
And when the VIPs go home,
· Bermudians will relax--perhaps with a glance back at another important, event, For on November 24 the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.are to call at the island on their way to Australia, That too should give a flip to an over-briak. tourist Industry.
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