I'
Page
PATRICIA
LEWIS
THE
CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1958.
Now she's reached NASSAU
NASSAU, Bahamas,
ever I should live to a rich old age-and the chances both healthwise and wealthwise grow increasingly dim-I shall meet heaven halfway.
salt-white
shore
I shall totter off to the Bahamas. There I shall sit on the patio of my palm-thatched cabin by the admiring the blue-reds of bougainvillea, hibiscus, and poinciana, the blue- greens of the water me it dives from shallow to deop drinking vast quantities of rum at 128, a bottle ... and waiting to see who gets me first-the Inland Revenue or God
But I probably shall not be doing it in Nassau. By
Providence
come
an
This tune wan Craig Huston.
then the island of New I'm a sort of renagade lawyer,
will have bebe sald with a wry smile. "Now 1 represent radio equipment embryo Miami, business.
Yup! I'm here to sel offshore with scores of daily lights up what we call an bringing in as many conven- irding compute. tions as there are industries
for all the fun of the fair Tourist flood
little plot.
Ne. I shall And me a spot on remote "out one of the 700
1stands of the Bahamas, which sperulators may have overlook-
The beauties- ed, but where both hysical and seal-may still exist
No tax
re-
he tax-free profts on sales we retsin In Nassau will used to build up a strong or
the Kanisation Overseas States profis are taxed by nt
per
by least 52
cent, so operating from the Bahamas we
to 100 cents
the dollar get Instead of 48."
be
hovera
So the companies come, the dollars devolve, and big-scale developments push ahead With For this is without doubt one Miami 40 alr-minutes away and of the most inviting areas that New York only four have happened on earth.
For distant, the winter-sensor supreme onc
годно Even tourist trickle-45,000 in 1950- flood without the loveliness that
becsinc year-round
E wards every exploring glance.
totailing nearly 200,000 in 1957. have four years the warm, bright crystal air and
The past anachronistic charm of British
seen seven new holcls bulli on Colonial life, The Bahamas this small coral reef measuring would be booining,
a mere 20 miles long and seven There is no tax on incomes, miles wide.
In capital Kains, excess proilla, Baies, or inherited real estate,
and there is no tax on corpora-
tions.
"Our whole economy dependa on this lack of x." said one Bahamian 10 the investment business, These daya sure of the the biggest companies in world operate from here."
When you Wck your way down bustling Bay Street to m certain lawyer's office tils IN bold y eviden The entire Frontage and stairense is cover- ed with plaques proelain, ng: This is the registered offlem of so-and-so company."
deference to
the 85 per
marked in everywhere dollars-up to £23 a day for a double room with balb.
cent American ellentele, prices
Are
Good start
But for the Union Juck flying House, you over Government
that this would never
Car-Aung WKS 1
corner of the British
guess
Earpire. I landed at Windsor airfeld simultaneously with a charter
plane bringing in hearty load
on д con.
as the big
season
Fa
in renting a villa, so we have already purchased property on- to cater for our particular the shoreline. clientele."
Tourista
tax
escapers
and now Nassau looks to a third group to augment its prosperity-wealthy
Yacht by game owners attracted fishing, who patroniso, newly developed, self-contained com- munities such, an Lyford Cay and Coral Harbour.
American finan- eler Lindsey HOD.
starts
about this
rowing aspect
over there. That's right, folks, Hotel,
help yourselves. pile in and There's plenty for all
He paused while his brood scattered to the bar. "That's better," he resumed when the crowd,
troah Blurping
amber round him glasses, gathered
kina
the
One alight mag, though, may
MG
scheme. Taylor's
mar
kept the money towing thick andt fast. ""*
Since then, the no-tor alt-' allon has brought capital pour ing in at an ever-increasing
rabo.
Today the opportunities of thin 167lla išdu`are' open to all who can afford the fare, and get a welding permit, and you need not be a millionaire to mados, the most of them.
You
too?
You can bo Hodley Edwards, a Jamaican who has trained dock of 30 flamingoes to parade, muster, about-turn, charge, and dismies with the precision off a high-kicking chorus line,
Out of the dollar charged por head Mr Edwards manages to feed his flock, keep up the gardens where they live, and
"I it rains I may only have
Under a now law recently sustain himself handsomely. passed in Ottawa, entates abroad of Canadian nationals 20 in the audience," he told me, "but when the cruise boats aro are now liable to death duties,
in I have as many na' 600 people This, alone has torn a ́alight twice a day."
Бост rent in the Baharnes
bat
You can bo Heather woods should other
Governments from England, who is nowa follow suit the carefully woven editor for the local radio station Pattern of capitalist economy Z.N.S. (Zephyr Nassau Sun could collapse in a lot
of shino). heads 8,000,000-dollar
dropped stitches.
"There's so much talks about Coral Harbour project; opened Sothehow, though, Nassau cost of living here, but I actually new and last year on the southern shore would survive as it has all crises and it cheaper than London,
of this "isle of perpetual June" in its past history. The aboli- she said. "No tax cheap drinks,
tion of slavery nearly ruined the no need to spend much The snob appeal of an esteto
community in 1839, but
the clothes or heating, no saving with its own yacht centre and American Civil War brought for holidays in the sun, and
we have club has prospective residents back wealth. Nassau becante a then
a much more snapping up ocean-front lots at supply base for the Confederate exciting social life. I have more £10,000, like Renoira
blockade runners.
Invitations than I can cope with."
of
local tourism.
What, I wondered, is the point of making everything so home-for-home for Americans, when half the pleasure of holidaying differences,
abroad
19
Escapees
once more,
"Now, i have to tell you that you're abroad. They drive on tho wrong side of the road here, so watch it. And I don't want to
The alarm you, but 's Haler not
water. to drink the Okay? Then lot'a gol"
they Away
went to the Emerald Beach Hotel, head- quarters of the convention trade here.
with
Next day I drove out to talk Wesley Koeman, general manager of the Emerald Beach
DELOW
the
American ✓ resort business is different from the European,"
explained
Mr Keenan patiently. "Our visitors are nearly 100 per cent American, and they don't seem to like it when things get too unusual.
"Most
of the British who come here are more interested
Round the wostem Up of New Providence Canadian In- dustrialist E. P. Taylor in financing the 4,000-acre Lyford Cay to the tune of £2,500,000 on initial construction.
Plans include an 18-hole golf ecurse, shopping centre, garage, canals, a bosin for 20 yachts, and sites for 305 exclualvo homes.
Though Lyford Cay is still incomplete I hear the Earl of Dudley and Viscount. Astor are two of the wealthy Britons
who and Americans
bave
Then came another depros- slon, until the sponge industry was begun.
The First World War brought a alump, but when prohibition hit the States, Nassau bounced back in the bootlegging business and the Colony waxed rich on smuggling.
Smuggling
You can blonde beautician who set her first salon in the centre of Nassau and now has six, others dotted round New Providence and the "out Islands.”
You con be
be Barbara Watts, up
Edward
sing-rong vòlce ̈pf the bom and-bred Bahamian
"Of course, the Bahamas aro an ideal place for running con- truband. The boots come in from Haiti with a cheap grado of rum. Narcolles? I've heard Tumours about them, bgt I've never intercepted any."
You can be Bobby Bynioneiša, whose father is Leader of the House of Assembly. Young and personable, Mr Symonotte is not, surprisingly, Involved in most of the island's doings.
He, is Deputy Speaker of the House, owner of a yacht haven, the Pilot House Club, a chain of six liquer mores this is a nution of.... liquor-shopkeepers, there must bo nearly 50 in Bay Street alone-a gazuga unda teri berview a
He is ako a member of the board of practically anything in the Bahamas, that you care; to mention,
Easy life
This unholy alliance between liquor and politics bótliers any rusidents, but Mr Symonette just shrugs: "It is an easy life. At trast, I find il cory."
You can be Market Sanborn, roughing it in her air-condi torred tolovialened hut among the coconut palms of Hog Island while sho dashes off a society column for the title-filleted readers of Miami newspaper.
You can even be me opening windfall coconuts on a handy boulder, and getting a new milk drink I named "Coconut on the Rocks," while pleniéking on the Immaculate uúrvo. of Paradise
Brach.
A flying three-day visit here, though, is as insettling sa an Inconclusive: romance. a hint only of what might be," Yet it was enough for me to get sand from the Bahamas in my shoes and that, legend tells, meaus I must rolien.
Lean years followed until the tourist trade grew into a new
I only hope If-I do (in my source of revenue. The Second
rich old age) that nothing wilt World War called a temporary McKenney, comptroller of have changed. But "progress" tatt in development, but the Customs, who wears an orchid, de "progress" and that, I fear, building of two airfields and the in his buttonhole as he tells you a too much, to ask of even à arrival of the armed services about smuggling in the soft holf-way hènyen.
ON A BIG DAY FOR ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS, A REPORT ON THE THOUSANDS OF U.S. AIRMEN LIVING AMONG US
the vapour trails and above the scream of the Super Sabres at the American air base at Bentwaters, Suffolk, Evelyn Ridge, of Texas, is taking me on a conducted tour of her home in Britain.
Evie, as she is known to one and all around these parts, pours me iced beer that has come from a refri- gerator the size of a tele-
and phone kiosk
Bays:
Based in Britain?
Sure we like it!
the wife of n USAF...., main- tenance officer at Bentwaters, Jay a seven-bedroomed, ave- floored home.
On show
ense
BY RAMSDEN GREIG
should be showing the British differences between the Ameri- around one of their own can way of life in Britain and landmarks. No, I don't mind your own. You see we like to the the Interruptions... I guess it's thinks that we are part of
We like to of Bedford, Mrs all part of successful Integra- British way of life.
many as tion."
think that we have successfully (mainly
integrated."
"It may not be one of Eng- With the accustomed of Mid-Westerners
land's stateller homes, but of vention spree,
conducts the darn Ridge "Everyone! And welcome it is certainly
Nassau," boomed
the oddest."
the
1
10
In the pola-shaded bar an old-established British Colonial to
off
of But holel
Bahamian equivalent waterlignt
In's red-coat "Now, just to talked with a young Ainer ein
start you all off in the right from low, sent by his fir form an offshoot in Nassau for mood, we've tax purpuSES,
It is, in fact, that SCTVOS the got a trolly of Suffolk cottages.
П
*
LS
a Duke
visitors dozen British) day around 1h0 There it was again--integra- house which I call quaint and a waler tower she calls cute
surrounding Under 28,000
She says:
planter's punch awaiting you gallons of water Evelyn Ridge, honey,
HARRY ODELL
PROUDLY ANNOUNCES
tion.
Everywhere I have gone un "It sounds crazy.
tour of the Little Americas a that,
American of Britain I have heard the word pronounced from a clipped Brooklynese to a tired Southern drawi
LE THEATRE D'ART DU BALLET
IN A REPERTOIRE OF ROMANTIC AND CLASSICAL BALLETS WITH ORIGINAL BALLETS BY Michel fokINE
AT THE
KING'S THEATRE
TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY
13TH 14TH 15TH
*
JANUARY 1959
AT 9.30 P.M.
JACK. TEAGARDEN SEXTET
LOKE
YEW
HALL
MONDAY,
29TH
DECEMBER
AT 9 P.M.
Sponsored by
*
骤
PHILIPPA SCHUYLER
KING'S
THEATRE
WEDNESDAY,
31ST
DECEMBER
AT
LOKE
YEW
HALL
SUNDAY,
4TH JANUARY
12 NOON
AT.9 P.M.
AMERICAN NATIONAL THEATRE & ACADEMY
(PIANIST)
THIRD
IN
FIRST
SERIES OF SUBSCRIP TION
CONCERTS
DUE TO UNCERTAIN WEATHER CONDITIONS THE JACK TEAGARDEN : PERFORMANCE AT · THE MACPHERSON STADIUM SCHEDULED FOR 31ST DECEMBER AT, 7.P.M. WILL NOW TAKE PLACE AT, THE, KING'S THEATRE AT 12 NOON OF THE SAME DAY. A TWO HOUR PROGRAMME: ATĘ,
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BOOK NOW AT ÎNTERNATIONAL FILMS, LTD., Room 107, Na. 9, Ice House Strant, Telephones 21832 G 31488 AND HARRY ODELL'S SHOWBOX, GLOUCESTER ARCADE, Tols. 22151 & 22152
Progress
At Third Air Force Head- quarters at Ruislip, Captain Bud Taylor, a public relations officer, was quick to point out mado "the progress" we have in Integration since the hell- The man at the American raising days when we come Embassy hnd looked across, here in force in 1991." his desk and with some appre-
hension had said: "I hope you By 1957 at the giant base are not going to highlight the Sculthorpe in Norfolk,
ROUND-UP
SMART GIRLS
Cute or quaint
--this is the
home of Mrs. Evelyn Ridge, wife of a USAF officer st Bentwaters air baso.
+
HEA
Americans were marrying Bri- in girls each month. Now all over the country there are Anglo-American at around 3,000 40 marriages every year.
"How integral can you get, air?" the captain zald. “Our boys play soccer, darts and drink! draught beer Little things, sir? Sure they are. But they matter in the end."
Barred
American wives have joined bridge clubs, have HREE former air hostesses are acting as "guides" to the thou- British
sands of people who come each week for functions at the Con-Iniltrated into all sorts of local naught Rooms, London. The three attractive ""guides" ore Mrs committees. Rinja Clinton, 26, who is Finnish and lives at Chandos Court, At Sculthorpe enc oficer Buckingham Gate, Miss Mox McNamara, 20, of Merthyr Tydd,
found himself leader of a Boy and Miss Pauline Roberts, 8, of Deal, Kont Qualifications. aro similar to those required for their previous job attractive, Scout troop, member of a local camera club and on a committee friendly and able to deal well with people, and of course
formed to raise a new village Janguages.
hak.
BELLRINGERS GET READY
of some of the off-base houses rented by married couples,
At Ruislip one officer told me he was naked to pay £18 18. a week for a furnished, three bedroomed, semi-detached hosiŠA In North Wembley.
"Sure, I aquawked a bit," ho said, "but what can you do? My landlord turned on me with: Well, you Yanks get a good allowance to cover your rent*"
Certainly the allowances ́ ́aro substantial, but they do not run to £18-105-4-week; accommoda- tion. Ordinary · airmen get an average allowance of £25 a month. Officers get from £30 to £40 according to rank.
· Integration also means. that thousands of American children. attend British schools. But
only in the lo generally mentary grades.
Schools
Great care is taken to put each new intake of airmen (and
"Don't forge!” a Bentwaters "In the picturo," education offer told me, ho are here for only four discouraged from tids
their wives)
аге
THROUGHOUT London, bands of bellringers are preparing for
the special peals with which they will ring in Christmas and They the Now Year. Leading team in the London area is the Guild of malding merry quips like "You years at the met, and it St Paul's Fix of whom members are over 70. The bells of St got 30 dollars a week man? wouldn't be fair to older kids Peul's are almost the heaviest in Britain. Only Exeter and Laver Why. I pool have heavier ones. There are 12 bells and 18 ringers the on that." extra one because, two men are needed on the big tener bell, which weighs 02 hundredweight. Even this is dwarfed by St Paul's great Bourdon Bell, which strikes the hour of 1 pm and in tolled on State occasions. It weighs nearly. 17 tons.
-ATTENDANCES UP
QURVEYS/ made after the Billy Graham evangelistic campaigns in Great Britain show that about 30 per cent of the people who made decisions for Christ" at his meetings, were still active churchgoers a year later, About 120,000 came forward, but ond survey showed that only 40 per cent of these were genuine non- churchgoers. These gures are given in "Religious Behaviour," by Mr Michael Argyle, Lecturer in Social Psychology at Oxford University. The book is published by Routledge and Kegan Paul
'at 20/-
BREAKS SOUND BARRIER
American education, uppet.”
OS.....
couldn't run my car in high grades to have their
the older "chliden have Big, belligerent inouths are severely dealt with
their own schools on tho "busce Captain Taylor told me
to which their Pops take in the morning in the don't know how happy the them
Chevrolets that British are about the Ameri-, big, shiny cans being hero, but I can tell identify the air bosce dotted you that the. Amerleans have around Britain as American.
Or, 11 Pops can afford it, thug few complaints.
are sent to English ́ pchools,
I
Landlords
Publio
・香
"It may disrupt their Amoris, can, education," ona colonel "The normal tour of duty for told me, ""but it suro gives thum
American airman in Britain a lot of prestigo when they is three years. But he can apply back to the States. to stay for four, I can tell you
Final note on how to in- * that right now 25 per cent of tegrate, successfully. the American airmen in Britain,
„Captain John Queniin Ericson are applying for an extention.
cf Bentwaters is a baseball fan "Nowhere else in the world who used to laugh at Billion ---
figure a reer: Then he topic an in- N'a recent visit to the American base at Wethersfold, sex, will they give you
Air Minister George Ward admired their front line F100 high that. Not even in Gorterest in the Ipswich To Super Babro nghters, The Americans promptly suggested a flight. many, which has always bean Football Club, which eventually As a result Mr Ward went through the sound barrier during a 30- regarded as a plum posting led him into the intricacies of miliuto leht. During the war "ho wis group captain and a "If anyone is endangering this football pools. Dying Instructor at the R.A.T, Blaff College. He Oles operational carefully planned Integration
He recently word £180, 1.A.F."alteratt ás'oftur að Þosalble,"
policy it could be the landlorda ***{London Expreke Kervice),
I