DANISH WEST INDIES.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9920, 28 December 1897, Page 5

DANISH WEST INDIES.

NEGOTIATIONS FOR THEIR PURCHASE.

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright. Received December 28th, 12.45 p.m. Copenhagen, December 27. The Government has informed America that two European powers are negotiating for the purchase of the Danish West Indies. Washington, December 27. Senator Lodge will submit a bill to the Senate, directing America to purchase this territory. [The Danish West Indies consist of the islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John, in the Virgin Group, lying to the north-west of the Leeward Islands. Their total area in English square miles is only 118 miles, and they have a population of some 32,000 odd, mostly i free Negroes, engaged in the cultivation | of the sugar cane. The trade with Denmark used to be considerable, but of late it has fallen off. In 1894 the imports from the islands into Denmark were valued at some £21,500, and the exports from Denmark at rather leas than £20,000, whereas in 1895 the imports into England amounted to more than £23,000, and the islands imported of British produce £60,000 worth, the chief article imported from the islands being sugar, while the principal exports were cotton, haberdashery, coal and iron. The port of St. Thomas was formerly a busy emporium for the European trade with tho West Indies, the harbour in which the merchant fleets assembled to wait for their convoys, and later the principal port of call in tho West Indies. Tho island is often visited by earthquakes. It was first colonised by the Dutch in 1657, and England has owned it at different times. St. Croix, or Santa Cruz, < was bought by Denmark in 1733.]