Where The Remote Bermudas Ride

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 14 September 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

Where The Remote Bermudas Ride

\ By Cyrano

WHEN I was young' I had dreams of .a yacht -that would sail not only New. Zealand waters, but the seven seas. Where the money was to. come from I hadn't any idea, but-1 supposed that luck would somehow.' provide. I thought, and no doubt it is a common belief of youth, that to be able' 1 to sail in -your own ship where you willed, and so see the world, would be the height of good fortune. Now'.l am not at all so certain. : To be a millionaire ; and travel about in your own yacht, attracts "ine much less ' than it did. Without l a job of work—unless one did one's own. navigation—what would one do with one's days and evenings? However,- it• would enable one to see places one has long wished to seej'and to see them" at leisure, unhampered by. time-tables. It is a curious thing "that this free method of travelling is enjoyed by those who sail in tiny vessels as well as large ones. I have met an Englishwoman who has seen in ' this leisurely and satisfying fashion the Bermudas, the - West Indies and the Pacific islands, and lier ship was less than 40 feet long. What she has told me has confirmed me in my conviction that rigid 'itineraries are among the chief curses of travelling. Learning Geography One of the places I want to see, and not in a hurry, is Bermuda, which recently came into the news in spectacular fashion. For it is. in the Bermuda group that the United States is to lease an air base from Britain, ; perhaps the first of such posts. I have. remarked, •until perhaps my friends and my readers are tired of it, that war is the best' teacher of geography. Most of us knew something about Bermuda. We may have known that Shakespeare referred to "the still vexed Bermoothes," and is , believed to have laid the scene of "The Tempest" in those islands, then regarded as a seat of black magic. The'locality of Prospero's Isle should be interesting to Britons. ' We may have known, too, Marvell's "where the remote Bermudas ride." We may have been aware that they had long been a British naval and • military base, and that they drew great financial benefit from American proliibi - '* tion. But just after the news came, T met a University graduate who had ve.v hazy ideas about this British colon}'. She: had had a notion, indeed, that the islands were American. And I found that my own ideas were by. no means

i ... . ' . . . ~ so clear , as might reasonably be exKpccted. So I got out an atlas and some 1 books about the islands, and sat down to get a better., view. I was well repaid. . The Bermudas are a remote group, and before the age of steam their people t must have led an isolated life. They i lie nearly COO miles from the American * coast, but further still from the West r Indies, with. which they are popularly J but erroneously connected. Really they * are nearer to New York than to Jamaica. They are a narrow chain , of t islands and, islets, linked here and there [i by causeways,' 20 miles .long, and on f the average only half a .mile wide. They - are the northernmost. outpost of the s coral builder, and their climate is subI tropical. The coral limestone that is j' so plentiful has had an important effect on social life, for, as W._ D. Howells, i the American novelist, remarked,. "One f has but to saw a hole in his backyard 1 and take out a house of soft creamy sandstone and set it up and go on living s in it." rf-. . 0 Bermuda has its own distinctive s architecture, and these white-roofed ? stone' houses, their; walls washed in 3 white or pink, set in native cedars, T oleanders, bougainvilleas, and hibiscus 2 are'part of an extraordinarily beautiful landscape. Some of the interiors, with their period furnishings, have a rare old-time charm. These, indeed, are j magic isles. A young New Zealander j who recently spent a couple of days there wrote of them as a paradise—-fiun-L shine and sea, and shaded roads ! and 2 flowers in profusion. "Drcnched with 1 bougainvillea" is a phrase in one book. , No Motor Cars t\ The sea creeps in everywhere, marr vellous in its colouring, both on its surt face and in its life. Yachting, is the I chief sport of the colony, and the term j Bermuda rig-is known to yachtsmen all i over the world. Those who have readI Lord Frederick Hamilton's "Here, ' There arid Everywhere," may remember r his lively descriptions of yachting in , Bermuda, and especially the episode of i the British officer who won a race by i ; jumping his craft over a reef on a I breaker, and thereby cutting six miles i off the course. Bermuda is indeed a fascinating place, f It is the second oldest British colony and very proud of the fact that it has had. * self-government sinea 1620. It was i colonised by the sort. of people who I planted' Virginia, and life there bears > suine resemblance to that of the South-

ern Stages. The colour line is drawn ' rigidly between the 12,000 whites and the 31,000 "coloured" people, a measure of selfrprotection, but, said an American writer two years ago, "there is no insult--3 ing Jim Crow arrangements on the 1 railroad or ferries," there are several * negro} members of Parliament, and, I "more significant still, there has never B been a lynching." Victorian rules of conduct persist. There are, for example, 1 chaperones at dances. The white aristok cracy is an aristocracy of family and j not of wealth or position. Members of j the first families work in shops and lose no caste by doing so. On the other f hand, a member of Parliament may not s bo received in the "best homes." The x electorates or "parishes" still bear the f names of the families among whom the 2.. * .-id was originally divided. The colony, is interesting., too, because 3 it attracts hosts of tourists without t changing its nature. It does not offer j the more meretricious aids to holiday * enjoyment, but offers just itself, its 1 scenery and atmosphere, plus reasonable 7 comfort and facilities for recreation. » Eighty thousand Americans go there in a year, and the tourist traffic furnishes j 85 per cent of the revenue, but the life L of the place is little affected. "Never i does a billboard eclipse a view." New , Zealand, please note. * Except for ambulances, . fire engines * and a few public works trucks, there 1 are no motor cars. That disturber of 5 the peace is forbidden by law. A peti- | tion presented to the Legislature some 30 years ago expressed the opinion that 1 the introduction of motor cars would " alter the whole character of the place. L . "The danger to be apprehended is chiefly 1 from reckless tourists, who would care •. nothing for local opinion or for the convenience or safety of others. This is one of the last refuges now left in the world to which one can come to escape such persons. It would, in our opinion, be a fatal error to attract to Bermuda the extravagant and sporting set who have made so many other places entirely intolerable to persons of tasto and cuf- , tivation." Among the signatories to this were Mark Twain and Woodrow Wilson. This policy , has been cnaintained. Even the doctors are not allowed to use cart (or were not when Mr. Hudson "Story of Bermuda" was written a few years ago),; and a new Governor's request for the privilege was firmly turned down. The push bike remains the general form of transport. Such is Bermuda, the charm of which . is now to be shared officially by the United States. The two bases will be side by side in the main harbour. May thfo be a good omen-

. Captain Allen's -lease was granted by the British Government. Great Britain laid further, claim to the island by sponsoring a visit in 193 G by the escort vessel H.M.S. Leith. Captain L. C. P. .Tudway planted the British flag and proclaimed British sovereignty. But, a* already noted, the island was discovered, and afterwards vioited, by vessels from the United States, and by this time it 'was apparent that Canton was to become important to the international air transport network. And so the. Leith called at Canton again in 1938, and diplomats of the United States and Britain met to discuss the question of sovereignty. It was settled for practical purposes by an agreement in early 1939, under which either nation would be entitled to use the. island as an ocean airbase, with the question of actual sovereignty postponed until later. "In the meantime, however, Canton was selected by the Eclipse Expedition of 1937 as its base for observation of the passage of the. moon over the face of the sun on June 8, 1937. Totality began in the vicinity-of Canton Island and ended in Peru. So the eclipse expedition chose Canton for its base, and there .was another expedition t.o Peru. The expedition to Canton, with astronomers, photographers, artists, writers and a radio broadcasting crew, journeyed to the South Seas aboard the navy seaplane tender Avoce.t, set up an elaborate eclipse-observing plant, and contributed

substantially to the store of astronomical knowledge. Incidentally, the expe-/ dition members gathered information about Canton itself which was useful later to the expedition which set forth from San Francisco to set up an airways base there. "It was in May, 1939, that the North Haven, out of San Francisco ror Canton, dropped anchor off the barrier reef and put ashore a construction crew of 43, together with launch, tractor> building materials, food, gasoline, and an endless list of supplies necessary for • establishing a Clipper airbase. In August, 1939, the California Clipper set out for the first survey flight over this route. The New Zealand surveys of 1937 were over the first-con-sidered route via Kingman Reef and Samoa, which would have been a spur line connecting the northerly Transpacific at Honolulu, and which was discarded in favour of the present route when the advent of the Boeings made it possible to plan in terms of a service starting from San Francisco and by way of the somewhat longer jumps to Canton anil Noumea." In November a second survey flight was made over this route, and since then the story of Canton has been a story of progress. A mid-Pacific outpost between New Zealand and the U.S.A., this once barren island may yet take an even more important role as a strategic point in Pacific defence.