1948-02-28 — Page 4

hotch

"Well, so long, giris—

I'm just off to bury myself In a good novel!"

JESTS AND DIERS

Long skirts seem to have got the women hemming and the men huw- ing.

Vindre getting old if you watch your food instead of the waitress.

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1948.

JOHN DOUGLAS takes you on a fact-finding tour of the Bahamas island of Spanish Wells, whose every inhabitant is a white man. Picture looks from the headland half a mile across the water to the island

wan. week there is always something doing, except on Wednesdays, when there is a night off from church activity.

Murray Stevenson, who persuaded to go to the Island.

And now that he is there he finds many of his potential cus- tomers prefer their own home cures to his medicine.

In the island school, with its ono teacher for 150 children, there is a strong bian on Biblical subjects. They even eure something

Any ten-year-old child will tell they call cancer, but the doctor twice as quickly as he can add nix you how old Job was when he died

THE STRANGER

ON THE

THE EDGE

OF PARADISE

TRAVEL cast into

T

and stx.

This is how the children have always been brought up, and the Islanders will stand for no inter- ference with tho curriculum or with any of their other traditions.

A new minister found that out at the last funeral, when the congregn- lion rebelled against him at the Kraveside for trying to stop their hyriu-singing.

IIe considered music was not in keeping with the solemnity of burial, and he said so.

But the people would have none of it.

So, in delance of the parson, they chorused their farewell:

" the sweet by and by

We shall meet on that beau-

tiful shore."

the or three out of every four in has never found out what it is. Caribbean Sea for about the place,

Four-job-man Higgs finds the a hundred miles from When the Newbolts, the Saw. immigration part of his job in-

With its white sands and gally Barrage often entis on the rocks Nassau and, se in the shallow yers, the Higgses, and the Sands teresting

coloured houses, Spanish Wells now, for Spanish

looks the dream island ripe for because both the males want to be

been counted, too. you Wells has become a Bahamas invasion and enrichment as a tourist blue orean, you will find Spanish have captains.

Wells, an island two miles long have practically completed the port of entry, and there is Gs. ' centre. But it never will be.. and a few hundred yards wide, census.

tax to collect from everybody The man on the headland has the home is

of 750 The islanders claim they are Nobuy

The nations which knows how

for the honest, pious people, all of them the world's happiest community, would

themselves range next wor, but there is certain to be

white.

No rich, no poor at of. Jockeying for position fo set on the losing such.

"Is be getting a commission ist the Driny?"

"No, he gets a straight salary."

A pessimist

ente

who

istened to an optimist.

***

is wonderful says Baggazine wrlige. ly in an ancestor,

has

Here you are in the West Indies, yet here no black man or woman is allowed to live.

White folk have passed their days on this island in strange, peaceful isolation for 300 years, There is no adequate record of their origin. Some will tell you their forefathers fled from the religious intolerance of England

Some say they are descended

virtue." Particular from pirates.

He who laughs last side brund a big fellow at the movies.

Overheard on the ferry: "Of course in not speaking, to him, but how can I not speak to him

if I don't see him."

She want ai In who doesn't smoke, swear or philander.

He: What for?

A

LETTER

But they all agree the original | settlers---whoever they were-

pledged themselves to preserve the island for their own race, and not even to employ black

To that vow succeeding remained generations have faithful.

slaves.

Intermarringe has left the

island with only a handful of

Haines,

who comes.

got as near as any outsider can. This means he has to keep aj" sharp look-out, for there is one individual who turns up without Certainly Spanish Wells has warning, and usually gets missed a lot of trouble. There ashore on the headland opposite is po big house on the island the island before he can

There asked for his admission fee. and there is no hovel.

A tiny white cottage has are no rich people, nor are any

been built on that bare, wind- poverty-stricken.

swept headland, half

" mile across the water.

There are homes, food, and work for all. Every man owns

the house he lives in.

There are so taxes to pay, for these people need no public ser-

vices to sustain them.

believe in individualism.

They

Politically they form part of the Bahamas colony, but their Government in Nassau neither interests them nor has any real impact on their lives.

They are content, and they ask only to be allowed to get

along in their own way.

Their island home is a rocky,

barren place where palm trees and little else grow.

So the farmers go to work by One family the Pinders- includes more than 500 people, boat across a narrow sound to neighbouring Eleuthera, where the temperate climate produces good crops of tropical fruit and

FROM

PARIS

The Crisis is all a matter

of confidence

BY SAM WHITE

vegetables.

. The fishermen who make more money than anybody else -go off for a fortnight at a with heavy time, returning catches they sell all over the

West Indies,

be

In outside appearance it much like those on. the island itself-a bit bigger than some, maybe, but the sort of place one. of the

prosperous fishermen would have.

Resting place

It has no electric light. There is no telephone, radio. There is no gramophone. There is no There is an oil stove and a kerosene refrigerator.

It has two bedroom two bathrooms, a

kitchen, and a -living room. simplicity, are starting; the The bedrooms, in bathrooms,

in completeness,

Lord Beaver-

astonishing.

There lives

brook, retiring newspaper pro-

prietor.

Career

Bernard Wicksteed

SIDE GLANCES

By Galbraith

galle

COPA, 1947 BY NEA BERVICE, ING. 7. ME BEG U. &. PAT, OFF."

"Well, if Dinkey Jones's mother is almost ready to let him smoke, just tell him your parents almost gave you per mission too!"

looks for bis ancestors- 400 feet under the earth

It seems I'm a Man of

For company they had elephants, and hippos, tigers, Ilons, hyenas, bears. Then the great Ico Ago came -the last of four in the world's history. Tho cold drove away tha sub-troplent animals, and in their places came hordes of new creatures from the north-mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, blson, reindeer and Hunt cave bears.

The ice came down as far as the Thames, but missed out the Mendips. Man struggled on, shivering in his caves, but he had to changs his whole way of life, for the cold killed the plants on which he had lived- and drove him to take up ment.

On the hunt

THERE was plenty of good food in a mammoth, but the trouble was getting it. So these early Stone Age men developed a neat little trick that may have been copied from the wolves. They formed themselves into human. packs and drove the mammoths and other beasts over a

precipice.

the Bronze Age

. *BRACHYÇEPHALIC'

says CHAPMAN PINCHER

PLANNING for France's re- port industry on a competitive basis on the island or travel around being marooned for days by badMendip Hills area of Somerset.

of that

to

run

Meet Mr. Balch! How do we know all this? which means "New Stone Age."

The first inhabitants of these caves were called Paleolithic men. It means "Old Stone

Age." Their kuccessors were called Neolithic

Bones found In the Hyena Den show the spinters und cracks sustained in the fall.

After a few more thou sand years even the un- rationed mammoths began

out.. Just

the above Hyena Den is another cave called In his curious ending to A

the Badger Hole, Mr, Batch and a tempestuous

band of voluntary helpers are work- found this strange place.

he hus:

Ing in it now, and although it was occupied for centuries Mr. Balch He makes frequent pilgrimage

The new tenants, animal and has found there the cooked remains HE housing situation being there, often having to wade

what it is, Mr Chapman human, never bothered to throw of only two mammoths an old cow ashore through several feet of The traders either keep stores water and always in danger of to look over some caves in the on top of them until eventually of civilisation in Britain. The cave

Pincher and I took time off out the belongings of their pre- and a baby.

decessors. They just moved in In a way this was the beginning the Caribbean with their goods weather. and wilt re-establish the 11-1

But none covery is rather like trying important-French-tourist-industry in-small bouts..

there was so much junk in the men were forced to take up agricul-

to cook an omelette on board n

seems-to-matter-a-bit,

At one time this was the May-place-flints-and-old-bones-and-and the shortage of fur coats Already tourist agencies in the

women led to the introduction Rain stored

He is still in contact with the fair of Britain, where the most wouldn't live there.

so on that even hyenas wildly rocking bout. The ingre- United States report that France is

spinning and weaving. dients are both excellent and once again first favourite amung the At home, life is simple, much outside world but only just exclusive cavemen had their The first link in his communieu-homes and, as it looks as if some plentiful, the skill of the chef intending vialtors to the Continent

this spring and summer, and it is of it primitive.

chain is weak, for the estimated is unrivalled, but despite

that these visitors

will An electricity power station tion

the of us may be back to that sort ILDY eggs that have been leave behind them more than 100,- has recently been built, and Spanish Wells rowing-boat can- broken since the Liberation, the 900.000 drted that hard on me some households have accepted not cross the wild waters to the of life again pretty soon, you

it is reported on the heels like t

Well, Mr Pincher and I got announcement the benefits of this new-fangled hendland in rough weather. of the devaluation

Neolithic men polished their stone orders were received from importantiden. But lamps are still pre-

our information from a main weapons as if they were metal, and Now a fresh batch of eggs hove American firms who had done no

who used to be a postman. As learned how to plough and keep been broken and a new start made business with France since the war, ferred in many of the austerely takes all the skill

trepid Carl Pinder to pilot it One of the properties we saw a rule postmen do not know animals. furnished wooden houses. with a series of sweeping dnancial reforms. What are the chances of SOMETHING TO BUY

There is no water supply, so safely

Beaverbrook is called the Hyena Den, and much about people who lived in The country was getting warmer, Secondly, the free gold market rain bas to be collected and anchorage-an unsteady wooden some people say it in the oldest the district 50,000 or 60,000 and a new lot of men came up from success this time?

An pier jutting out from the sand known habitation in the coun- years ago, but this one is prob- the south. The newcomers had

dunes. unanimous that success is assured-give the peasant something to buy stored in Inrge cisterns.

ably the most unusual employee etul. They began to come about

broad heads try. It was converted into a re- the Postmaster-General ha 4,000 years ago, and the civilisation Exit Mr. Bracken sidence during the late Pleisto- ever had and an Inspiration to they introduced is called the Bronze the local Beaverbrook interests.

Cart Pinder is now factotum for cene Period, 60,000 years ago, all with a dull job.

when the climate here was sub- He is a dashing figure in naval tropical and Britain was joined

While telling us this, Mr. Balch His name is Mr H. E. Balch, kept glancing at me with a critical cap and white tunic, and has all the marks of authority about him.

and he started his Post Office eye, and eventually said: "You know, to France,

A perfect But these days he is usually bare-

career as a telegraph boy in you are

example of footed, tunicless, und

Bronze Age man yourself.. Just tho trousers with

When The Thames was a tributary Wells, Someract. rolled above

his knees,

carrying of the Rhine then, and you got wasn't delivering telegrams he right build and head dimensions." disconcerted or

So I take 4 precious supplies

family on the was exploring the many caves

interest Englishmen from his boat on the tigers instead of fish

just outside the town and study the original Ancient Britons that the In the Bronze Age now. We were last few precarious yards over the Dogger Bank, . rocks to safety.

ing the things he found. He Romans found when they landed, continued this dual life for 50 and grand-ded threw a very pretty

result is always scrambled eggs.

French economists

more

almost will, for the first time since the wur, are

it only the boat stops rocking for for fils money. He will be able to ice-making plant, lately opened, buy gold. To do that and to keep has been closed down, for no- on doing it he will have to throw body wanted it. hoarding them.

1

MONTHS OR YEARS?

response

the

Even on

may care to know what living 1 normal day it conditions were like.

of the in-

to the

Only once has he been dismayed.

That was when his boat capsized

and he dropped Mr Brendan Bracken into the swell,

The technique

he

Age.

and could

:

work soft

a

long enough.

Fundamentally, they point out, France's crisis is far less serious than his goods on the market instead of Until a few months ago there Britain's. The basis for France's recovery has already been laid in a Thirdly, the free gold and dollar was no doctor on the island. remarkable industrial effort which market will enable the Government And few of these white people has brought production to its pre- to coax out the large volume of gold have ever seen a dentist. war level-despite war damage and and foreign exchange hoarded in strikes. The difference between France,

Interest in the outside world from and to bencilt France and Britain, they say, is that holdings held by French citizens in is contined almost entirely to Britain must export to live, whereas the United States. The French France must export to live well. action has met with an immediate weather reports broadcast from

from the United States Nassau.

There is no cinema or other In short, the French crisis is little Treasury who are making available more than crisis of confidence. to France 350,000,000 dollars in public entertainment, but the Restore confidence in the Govern blocked French assets.

Fourthly, argue the economists, islanders get adequate enjoy ment and their currency, say these

years, becoming successively It spear. economists, and recovery would be a the invalidation of the 5000-franc' ment at night out of two hours

postman, a Master of Arts, the The junk-filled Hyena Den and matter of months instead of years. notes, representing 37 per cent of with a hymn book.

Across, in Spanish Wells, every-AS there were no house agents postmaster of Wells, and a the Badger Hole weren't good enough And to restore confidence

Women rarely leave Spanish body is interested in the hendland means the nation's currency, although only

the first inhabitants were Fellow of the Society of Anti- for my family. So we crossed the tackling the problem of French in a temporary measure, must have the Alution at its root-the peasants with effect of substantially reducing the Wells, and men go only occa cottage and its occupant.

squatters, who took over the quaries. He is a stranger.

but after all, eave from a bear. The technique money to burn who, distrusting the amount of currency in circulation, sionally to Nassau to buy stores.

they say, he is a while man, and currency because they cannot buy thereby having a beneficial effect on Home cures all right so long as he is separated of taking a cave from a bear is by this narrow stretch of water from to wait till the family is out and COMMUNIST DANGER Twice a week Postman Blois their exclusive territory. Finally this year will produce a Higgs, who is also policeman,

then nip in and light a fire in the To meet the situation the Govern- bumper wheat harvest-and

So the flanders Just look actors

doorway. ment have announced in quick French rarely throw out a Govern-tion authority, sets out with 'a

the Customs official, and immigra- at him, and he just looks across at

them and all are satisfed.

"I used to start work at the successioni a series of sweeping ment in a good harvest year.

When they come back the post office at 5 a.m.," he told us. The remote silence of the head- financial menures: (1) devaluation;

છું The Immediate danger comes from bundle of letters. (3) The establishment of a free the Communists. With wages still

land is broken only by the bells of father bear says: "Who's been "That meant I was free to go A The islanders don't think the island's

liomo market in gold, dollars and Portu vainly chasing prices, a new strice much of correspondence as

of ours was a regular three churches one sitting in my cave?" and the cave-digging by two. a Methodist

palace. We had a southerly aspect, #ucse escudos; and (3) the invalida wave is a possibility, Already, the

Plymouth mother bear and the baby bear

450 ft. of roof over our heads, and a tion of 5000-trane noies.

Communist led trade unions have habit. So sometimes half the Brethren. The next few weeks will decide lodged

"We know about the evictions chimney that carried away the smoke. They often ring. On Sundays say the same thing, but na they fresh wnge.

thu. was running water in the fate of these measures and with these demands result in widespread

demands. If mail is addressed to the doctor, services- Tun practically non-stop are all afraid of the fire they go from the Hyena Den because There it the fate of French, democracy. strikes it will be the end of the

young Canadian

called throughout the day, and during the away and Goldilocks doesn't there were six distinct and alter cellor, and natural air-conditioning What will be taking place will be on Mayer plan. The fall of the Schu-

have to jump through the nate inyers of debris. First thero kept the temperature at on even 61

degrees summer and winter, unspectacular kind of financial re- man Government, dissolution and

DAB and FLOUNDER

window. -by Walter ferendum with the frane as

were remains left by animals, the Gaullist triumph at the elections universal ballot paper. And during may follow in quick succession.

with toothmarks on the bones, If it was showing and we didn't this period the French Government

The trouble with this system then ashes and bones that, had want to go out we could move to What are the chances of foiling will be keeping their Angers crossed the boat-rockem this time? General

was that the dispossessed bears been cooked and cracked for the in the hope that those who prefer de Gaulle, whose sole hope of re-

didn't like it, and they'd hang morrow." their eggs scrambled will have turning to power rests on the Com-

around for years just waiting neither the opportunity nor the munist danger materialising into strength to rock the boat.

anything of value with it, nre prices. therefore driven to hoarding and the wildest profiteering,

THE MAYER · PLAN · Leaving out political considera- tion economists here are convinced that the Mayer plan which is, in fact, the work of Franco's most dis- tinguished economist, M. Jean Monnet-can succeed.

This is how they argue. First, devaluation will put the French ex-

something like a bid for power, talks confidently of a "Communist spring offensive."

There is no mystery about the Communist fallure last December, They failed because the workers

would not follow them.

If, when the next atrike call comes, The workers show the same diatasto for revolutionary violence, then the Communists will fall once again.

11

two and

for the fire to dio out when

everyone was

anleep, Then

River Axe about 250 'B.C. and moved into a more sumptuous cave known Now, ut 78, he is curator of as Wookey Hole, where we stayed the Wells Museum and one of for 700 years. Britain's leading authorities on primitive man..

Bones speak

they'd go in, and that would be WHAT sort of the end of the squatters,

“Running water"

cave dwellings go this ancestral

one of the chambers at the buck and catch fresh water shrimps for tea, ("Gammarus pulex." sald Mr. Pincher, who fished one out.)

Sometimes 1 am sorry, we ever left Wookey. We got on all right with people were they the Romans and entertained many a G.I. legionary, but we couldn't who lived in the Hyena Den stand the Saxons who came after before Britoin became an island? them. They kept acqueing us of. This happened six times In Bones of this period show that they stealing their cattle...

the Hyena Den, Six times the were short and narrow-chested, and

people moved. In and, six times the women were eight Inches smaller So we moved to the Welch H{120

the tenancy was terminated, than the men. From their teeth it and, later on, to Hampstead. But, if seems they wero Intended by nature the-atom war comes, I think we'll I sometimes without notice.

go back.

to be vegetarians.