Down Under With the Prince Part 12

The entire city of Port of Spain had been effectively decorated.

Sugar-cane-stalks, cocoa-pods, and coco-nuts, were worked in cleverly upon arches, spanning its substantial streets, to represent the agriculture of the Colony. The other main Trinidad industries, asphalt and oil, were well in evidence in the smooth surface found upon the roads along which the Royal procession pa.s.sed. The crowds lining the route were made up in fairly equal proportions of negroes, East Indians, and persons of mixed or "coloured" race. Few Europeans were seen until the Legislative Council building and the Town Hall were reached, where they were in considerable numbers. Those presented to the Prince included Messrs. De B. Best, Colonial Secretary, H. B. Walcott, Controller General, A. G. Bell, Director of Public Works, L.

Elphinstone, Solicitor-General, Colonel Mui, Commandant of the Local Forces, Major Rust, acting President of the Civic Council, Rev. Dowling, Catholic Archbishop, Dr. Ansley, Anglican Bishop, Sir Alfred Smith, Chief Justice, also Justices Russell and Deane, and Father de Caignai, Head of the Tunapuna Monastery.

The official address, read by the Governor, made special mention of how much the island owes to the British Navy, and the Prince in the course of his reply also dwelt upon this matter: "You have well referred," he said, "to the security enjoyed by Trinidad during the Great War, in which the people of this colony contributed in worthy measure to the victory of British arms. I am particularly glad to have this opportunity of congratulating the colony upon its fine services, and of meeting some of the gallant men whom it sent overseas. I am also much pleased to hear the colony appreciates how much it owes to the Royal Navy for its tranquil prosperity during those terrible years." Touching upon more local matters, the Prince said the colony had given a high measure of prosperity to those whose forbears had made it their home. It had also provided new opportunities for progress and well-being for a large immigrant population from His Majesty's Indian Empire. "I feel sure," he added, "that all its people, not only long established but recently arrived, will do all in their power to maintain its good traditions of law-abiding progress and loyalty to British ideals."

The Prince spent several days in Trinidad, driving through its thickly wooded hills, past shady cocoa plantations, well-ordered coco-nut groves, and fields of sugar-cane. He also visited the old-time Spanish capital of St. Joseph, where an address was presented to him. He attended in Port of Spain a state dinner and various other official functions, besides inspecting a big gathering of children. In the course of his remarks, replying to the toast of his health at the state dinner, he said, "I saw a suggestion, before I left England, that the British Empire might be willing to part with one or more of the British West Indian Islands to a foreign power, and I should like to say here again what I said in Barbados in March, that British subjects are not for sale. I can a.s.sure you that the King and all of us in the old country have very much at heart the welfare of Trinidad and all the British West Indies, also of all other British possessions," a statement which cannot be too often repeated in sentiment or exemplified in fact.

Visits were paid to some of the oil-wells, which are already a source of much wealth to Trinidad, and promise to become still more important in the future. The famous pitch lake was a sight along the coast, forty-five miles out. It is a semi-solidified deposit, lying in a shallow hollow, a quarter of a mile in diameter, close to the sea, where men have been digging out black slabs of asphalt for years without making a perceptible hole. The lake is so near the coast that ships sail practically up to it to carry away a product which is ultimately spread over the streets of the world. Fifty thousand tons have been taken out of it every year for a generation, and the level is estimated to have sunk only about nine inches. Oil underlies the pitch in the vicinity and a forest of derricks rises a quarter of a mile away.

From Trinidad the Prince made a side trip to Demerara, British Guiana, in the _Calcutta_, the _Renown_ being too big to cross the bar into Georgetown harbour. All the sunny richness of this steamy sugar and rice-growing corner of South America was in evidence when he landed at Georgetown, immediately after the ceremonial visit of the Governor, Sir William Collet. A fine West Indian guard-of-honour saluted him upon the pier, and mixed crowds of Anglo-Saxons, negroes, East Indians and Portuguese cheered in the decorated streets as he proceeded to the Government buildings. Here more guards-of-honour were inspected, including armed constabulary and militia. The Prince also shook hands with a long line of returned men. Entering the building he found the leaders of the local community a.s.sembled, including the princ.i.p.al officials and their families. An address of welcome was read by Mr.

Brown, a coloured West Indian, senior elected member of the Court of Policy. Archbishop Parry and General Rice were amongst those presented.

In the course of his reply the Prince referred to the great potential wealth of British Guiana and to the determination of its inhabitants to develop their inheritance to the full. It was essential, he added, that all parts and sections of the community should pull together loyally, in order that their future might be a.s.sured, and particularly that the great inland wealth of the colony might be laid open for the benefit of all. He hoped their ex-service men would prove themselves as public-spirited and useful citizens in time of peace as they had on active service in the field.

Two days pa.s.sed in Demerara in the enjoyment of the hospitality of the Governor and other leading residents. Visits were paid to a largely-attended race meeting, to sugar and rice estates in the swampy flats around the city, and to some very beautiful botanical gardens, where the schools of the colony were a.s.sembled, and the Prince pa.s.sed down dense lines of negro, East Indian, and European children.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMOA MAKES MERRY]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRINIDAD: IN THE DRAGON'S MOUTH]

As the _Calcutta_ put out to sea ten thousand musical West Indian voices on the Georgetown wharves joined with the light cruiser's band in the strains of "Auld Lang Syne." Probably never in the history of this important British outpost in South America has patriotic sentiment held more undivided sway or the fact been made more clear that the hearts of its flourishing inhabitants still turn faithfully to the old country.

Its people are looking to England at the moment with some hope, as well, of that co-ordination of Imperial resources of which British Guiana stands so much in need. The labour question has never before been so acute. The recent abolition of the long-established Indian indentures system, and therewith the cessation of immigration from India, has synchronized with enormous increases in world prices and world demand for the sugar which Demerara is so pre-eminently qualified to provide, and for this more labour is wanted.

The same question arises in connexion with new industrial developments, now on the eve of fruition, which must add enormously to the position that agricultural produce has already won for this colony. These will come with the exploitation of vast deposits of bauxite-alumina, that promise expansion of world-wide significance in connexion with steel manufacture, into which this comparatively new mineral is entering increasingly. The position, at the time of the Prince's visit, appeared to be that a million sterling had been spent by an American Company upon machinery and shipping and railway facilities for handling the ore, and that its effectual arrival upon the market was only a matter of time.

That an American Company should be spending such a large sum in the development of natural resources in British territory, was not the least interesting feature of the situation. It is to Anglo-American co-operation that Demerara and also the British West Indies must look increasingly for brains, initiative, and capital for the development of natural resources which are as yet by no means fully utilized.

The Prince returned to Trinidad through still steamy seas. Dawn on the day after leaving Demerara found the _Calcutta_ pa.s.sing the rocky portals of the narrowest of the three channels which make up the famous "Dragon's Mouth" entrance to the roadstead of Port of Spain. The sh.o.r.e on the landward side of this entrance was dotted with pleasant verandahed villas and fresh-tilled fields, signs of the civilization which is pushing back the forest in all parts of the island.

On reaching Port of Spain the Prince visited H.M.S. _Calliope_, a light cruiser just arrived from the north. He also paid a farewell visit to the Governor, and inspected the local fire brigade. In the evening he returned to the _Renown_, which shortly afterwards heaved up her anchors and left harbour for Grenada.

At St. George's, the princ.i.p.al town of Grenada, the Prince landed on the sheltered cove of Carenage, upon a decorated wharf on which was drawn up a guard-of-honour of the West Indian regiment beneath the stone bastions of an old French fort. He was received with every formality by the princ.i.p.al officials, headed by Sir George Haddon-Smith, Governor of the Windward Islands, Mr. Joyce Thomas, acting administrator of St. Vincent, Mr. Herbert Fergusson, Colonial Secretary, Mr. E. Laborde, Colonial Treasurer, and Sir Thomas Haycroft, Chief Justice, also the heads of the local Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Catholic Churches.

Thereafter, up steep streets decorated with flowery arches, beneath the clanging bells of numerous churches, through smiling, bowing, cheering crowds of cheerful West Indians and their gaily dressed women and piccaninnies, he was taken by car to the colonial Court-House, where the leading residents were a.s.sembled. He entered through a shaded courtyard, where he shook hands with a number of returned men and officers. The address was read in a low-ceilinged legislative a.s.sembly room, with wide French windows commanding a wonderful view of city and harbour.

In the course of his reply the Prince said the strength and spirit of the British Commonwealth could not be fully grasped by anyone without first-hand knowledge of the British Dominions and Colonies. "The more I see of the King's world-wide possessions," he added, "the more deeply I am impressed by the strength of the sentiment which binds them to the Empire and the throne"--the truth of which was testified to by every street he had pa.s.sed through.

The Prince was afterwards taken by motor into the interior, through some of the most luxuriant vegetation in the world, past cocoa and nutmeg plantations, up two thousand feet into the mountains, about the forest-shaded depths of the circular lake of Grand Etang, the crater of an extinct volcano. An official lunch and a garden-party at Government House filled up the day, which ended with a reception given by the Prince on the _Renown_ to the princ.i.p.al residents of the island.

Leaving Grenada at daylight the _Renown_ threaded her way through the cl.u.s.tering Grenadine Islands and past the steep twin green cones of the inaccessible Piton peaks, and anch.o.r.ed near the Pigeon Rock--Admiral Rodney's eighteenth-century naval base.

The Prince, accompanied by Sir George Haddon-Smith, who had come on with him from Grenada, landed at Castries at noon, where he was received by Colonel Davidson-Houston, Administrator of St. Lucia, supported by Mr.

Anthony de Freitas, Chief Justice, and other members of the Executive Council. St. Lucia's special arch was of coal, token of the colony's importance as a West Indian coaling-station. From under it His Royal Highness proceeded through decorated streets, the entire population of which had a.s.sembled to welcome him. The first stopping-place was in Columbus Square. Here, in the warm shade of big coco-nut palms and mango trees, a thousand children were drawn up, each school flanked by teachers, many of whom wore the black ca.s.sock of the Catholic Church.

The Prince afterwards climbed a hill overlooking the town, and wandered through the deserted barracks of historic fort Charlotte, where his great-great-grandfather, the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, hoisted the British flag in 1797, after the capture of the island by forces under Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis. Here, standing amidst luxuriant tropical vegetation, he looked northward to the rocky Vigie promontory, on which he could descry lines occupied by Sir William Medow's thirteen hundred British, who in 1778 hurled back invading enemies twelve thousand strong. Westward he looked over the muddy Cul-de-sac Bay, where Sir Samuel Barrington, in the same year, fought a desperate engagement with the French fleet under Count Destaing.

Eastward also the scene was full of historic interest, for here, beyond the red roofs of Castries city, was visible a distant palm-shaded beach, where Moore and Abercromby effected their landing in 1796.

Descending the steep gra.s.sy Morne, the Prince afterwards attended a popular reception at Government House, and thence went back to the _Renown_.

The still hot dawn of the following day found the ship pa.s.sing the green hills of the island of Martinique, birthplace of the Empress Josephine, also the bare sea-girt Diamond Rock off its coast, where, a hundred years ago, for eighteen lurid months, gallant Lieutenant Maurice and a hundred and twenty men with five guns from H.M.S. _Centaur_ beat off attack and themselves threatened all approach to the important harbour of the enemy in Fort-de-France. Here also, towering into the clouds, were visible the dim slopes of Mount Pelee, the eruption of which, eighteen years before, had brought death in a few hours to forty thousand people.

Thereafter, through summer seas, crossing the place of the decisive battle of the Saints, the _Renown_ pushed on, anchoring before noon off the pleasant town of Roseau, capital of Dominica Island, and head-quarters of the lime-juice industry of the world. As she neared the sh.o.r.e, the ship was met by the sound of cheerful bells, reflected out to sea from church towers backing upon green hills that rose into peaks, extending tier beyond tier in the interior, in such tumbled form that Columbus, describing it to his Queen, compared the island to a fistful of crumpled paper. Here the light cruisers _Calcutta_ and _Cambrian_ joined the _Renown_, the three vessels making a fine show as they lay together, decked with bunting, in the brilliant sunshine of the roadstead.

The Prince landed at a decorated pier jutting out into the harbour. He was welcomed by Sir Edward Merewether, Governor of the Leeward Islands, Mr. Robert Walter, a descendant of the founder of "The Times,"

Administrator of Dominica, Dr. Nichols, Senior Member of the Senate, and other leading residents. A guard-of-honour of the local defence force was in attendance, and a crowd of gaily-dressed West Indians. A little group of yellow Malay-faced Caribs, representing the survivors of these now nearly extinct aborigines, stood on one side. Their chief, an old man in top-hat and black coat, was one of those with whom the Prince shook hands. The scene as the Prince proceeded inland from the wharf, with cheering West Indians racing alongside his car, was one of much quaint excitement and enthusiasm. He was taken in procession through decorated streets, ma.s.ses of coloured Dominicans and their womenfolk clapping, shouting and laughing as he pa.s.sed. "Than' G.o.d I not die las'

week," was one pious cry, to the accompaniment of the widest grin.

Some beautiful botanical gardens, containing big trees, all grown in the s.p.a.ce of twenty-seven years, were inspected, and a visit paid to Government House, which stands in pleasant, shady grounds. The Prince re-embarked in the _Renown_ at sunset.

Unlike most of the other West Indian islands, which did well out of sugar during the war, Dominica, when the Prince visited it, was recovering only slowly from war depression which had hit its previously flourishing lime industry hard. This very depression, however, had increased the available openings for newcomers, good land offering at very reasonable rates. As the result, we were told, increasing numbers of returned men were settling there, with bright hopes of making good amongst beautiful surroundings and in a climate which is one of perpetual summer.

At Monserrat, a small island with open, cultivated fields contrasting with the dense tropical jungle of Dominica, the Prince was received by Mr. Condell, the Commissioner, and other leading inhabitants of the colony, which is prospering in the good prices at present offering for its sea-island cotton. Boiling sulphur springs, in a vast rocky cauldron of steam, upon a mountain-side covered with aromatic cinnamon gardens and flourishing fields of sea-cotton and potatoes, were things to see if not to smell. The Prince was cheered by crowds of coloured folk, who, in their broken English, still retain distinct traces of a brogue inherited from one side of an ancestry which dates back to 1664, when Irish immigrants were taken to the island by Sir Thomas Warner. It was a quaint mixture.

The _Renown_ put out to sea in still murky weather, with a yellow ring round the moon, signs significant to all sailor eyes, and not rendered more cheerful by the knowledge that a wireless message had reached the ship, reporting one hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and another off the coast of Texas.

The _Renown_ slipped through a smooth sea, however, to Antigua, completely escaping bad weather. Antigua proved to be another open island, not unlike Monserrat. The ship anch.o.r.ed five miles at sea off St. John's, a small sheltered harbour in which, three centuries ago, Prince Rupert successfully attacked two of Cromwell's ships. Here a number of wooden fishing boats, of half a dozen different nationalities, formed a lane of many-coloured bunting through which the Prince's picket-boat was conducted to a decorated wharf.

Sir Edward Merewether, Governor of the Leeward Islands, who had come on in the _Renown_, Mr. Johnston, Colonial Secretary, Mr. Griffith, Colonial Treasurer, Very Rev. Shepherd, Dean of Antigua, and members of the local Executive and Legislative Councils welcomed the Prince at the landing-stage. Thereafter, through decorated streets of dazzling white wooden houses, reflecting back the tropical sun, and alive with cheering coloured folk, the Prince went in procession to the old colonial Court-House. Here, in the presence of an a.s.semblage of the leading citizens and their families, an address of welcome was read by Mr.

Griffin, Chief Justice of Antigua.

The Prince replying, referred to Nelson's having refitted his ships in this island before the Trafalgar campaign. He once again testified that his own travels had been a wonderful experience and that he hoped to have many opportunities of repeating and extending them in the future.

A pretty function followed on the breezy cricket ground, where a surprisingly large gathering of white school-children, besides ma.s.ses of coloured mites, cheered the Prince enthusiastically. A state luncheon was afterwards given by the Governor, followed by a popular reception in Government House Grounds. The _Renown_ then sailed for the Bermudas, and the Royal visit to the West Indies, during which the Prince's cheery presence had produced the happiest impression, was over. The pleasure of the Europeans at seeing him in their isolated corner of the globe was almost pathetic. For those of West Indian blood the occasion was also a memorable one. It certainly revived feelings of solidarity with Great Britain which have sometimes been strained by that preaching of race-prejudice from which no people situated as these are can ever be completely exempt, be the white administration never so tactful.

Never, perhaps, has there been greater occasion for tact, as well as strength and sympathy, in the political guidance of the Islands than exists to-day. At the moment the West Indians are exceedingly prosperous on the whole, owing to the phenomenal war-prices their sugar, cotton and other produce have been fetching in the markets of the world. But the quarter of century or so of lean years that preceded the last half-dozen fat ones, have limited their outlook and r.e.t.a.r.ded their development in all directions. They have become isolated. They lie between two worlds, with a tendency to take their ideas from their neighbour the United States rather than from the distant Mother Country or from Canada.

The only public information of any interest reaching them by cable of happenings throughout the world is supplied through New York. American capital is displacing British for the development of their mineral and other resources. Their agricultural produce tends more and more to find its way to the United States. Their visitors from Great Britain and the Dominions are few compared with those arriving from America; yet that this state of things can be changed is proved by the partial revival in relations with the British Empire that has followed the conclusion of the recent admirable West-Indian-Canadian Agreement.

This agreement, however, is only one step in the right direction, and requires to be followed by many more. Direct steamers and direct cable communication with Great Britain are specially needed. The growing demand of the West Indian population for progress towards self-government, within the Empire, is also a matter of which the importance cannot be too strongly emphasized, though self-government cannot be realized without local readiness to face additional taxation and expenditure.

The splendid colonial Civil Service, sent out from London, has governed the British West Indies faithfully and well for many years, despite inadequate remuneration, and often discouraging deficiency in recognition from public opinion at home; but the day when rect.i.tude in administration and efficiency in maintaining security and justice were sufficient by themselves to satisfy the imagination of a coloured people is pa.s.sing away. The time is coming for new developments, in the interests alike of the West Indies and of the Empire as a whole.

The direction these developments must take is indicated by the nature of the situation that stands so plainly in view. Its evolution upon practical lines, in relation to the all-important question of the raising of funds necessary to pay for direct steamers and cable services and the attraction of settlers and capital from the British Empire, is a matter that, though difficult, is no longer impossible as in the past, for the reason that the recent growth in material prosperity in the islands has removed the bar hitherto existing to proposals for new taxation. In all consideration of the matter, of course, the fact has to be envisaged that the post-war conditions, which are affecting the world as a whole, are potent also in the British West Indies, and that no policy which does not take them into account can remain at all permanently in force in these important islands.

The position of the negro population in the United States necessarily reacts upon that of the corresponding people under British rule.

Propaganda is undoubtedly pa.s.sing from negro organs in the Republic to all the British islands. This propaganda takes into consideration the political conditions in Cuba and Puertorico, which differ const.i.tutionally from those obtaining in the British West Indian colonies. It has also to be remembered that the const.i.tutions of the various individual British islands differ amongst themselves, and that the formulation of a uniform policy for their development may reasonably be looked for in the near future. Such a policy must recognize the interests of the labouring cla.s.ses as well as of the old planter families. It would seem, at present, that the Governments have some difficulty in reconciling these two points of view, towards which they have equal responsibilities.

XXV

THE BERMUDAS

The picturesque islands of Bermuda, in the North Atlantic, the last halting-place upon the Prince's tour, put up a brave show in honour of the Royal visitor. The _Renown_ anch.o.r.ed at daylight on 1st October in the open sea off what is known as "Five Fathom Hole," where the cobalt of the deeper sea shaded into greenish patches above treacherous coral reefs. Through tortuous channels the _Calcutta_, to which the Prince had transhipped, felt her way, skirting on her left a prominent rock celebrated as the "Ducking Stool," testing-spot of seventeenth-century witches and place of punishment of scolds, where a battery of artillery fired a salute. A little inland of the Ducking Stool a green hummock rose, topped by Government House. Admiralty House also stood out pre-eminent amongst smaller villas. On the right, as the _Calcutta_ pa.s.sed on, curved a long sickle-shaped arm of rock forming the other side of the harbour, and terminating in the white sheds and fortifications of the naval dockyard. In the middle were tiny rocky islets between which the _Calcutta_ steered with margin only of a few feet on either side. Upon the way the U.S.A. battleship _Kansas_, under Rear-Admiral Hughes, a vessel sent to Bermuda by the United States Government in honour of the Prince's visit, fired a welcoming salute.

Coral-rock houses are a characteristic feature of Bermuda. They are built of squared blocks sawn out of the hillside, and have sloping roofs of similar stone rendered watertight with cement. One finds them everywhere. In the country their grey walls and roofs are surrounded by wildernesses of brilliant flowers, including purple bougainvilleas, the aptly named "flamboyants," and pink oleanders, with smooth lawns, terraced vineyards, and overgrown vegetable gardens sheltered by sombre conifers. In the city one finds sky-sc.r.a.per hotels and substantial offices, workshops of Bermuda's princ.i.p.al industry, which is that of catering for the American tourist, who flies to this sunny spot to escape the New York winter, and dine where he may still drink.

The Prince's visit took place in the off-season of hot weather when the princ.i.p.al hotels are closed. The entire city had nevertheless been decorated, and a large proportion of the twenty thousand inhabitants the islands boast, a.s.sembled along the Club Wharf in Hamilton City, where the landing took place. They consisted, for the most part, of cheerful negroes and coloured folk, with a considerable proportion of well-dressed whites, including many Americans. A guard-of-honour of the Royal Suss.e.x Regiment, in familiar khaki, stood to attention on the landing-stage, rifle-barrels gleaming in the fierce sun. Here also waited Sir James Willc.o.c.ks in white uniform ablaze with war medals, also Admirals Hughes and Everett and their staffs, and the princ.i.p.al civilian officials in the perspiring black morning dress of more temperate zones.