The England Sir Robert Menzies Will “Defend99

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30901, 6 November 1965, Page 13

The England Sir Robert Menzies Will “Defend 99

[By

EDDIE OAKES

in the "Sydney Morning Herald". Reprinted by arangement.J

ROBERT MENZIES led Australia into World War 11, in his first months of 2 ” nr P e Minister, with the ringing declaration “Australia’s frontiers are on the Rhine and on the east coast of England.”

This week the Queen may well have recalled those words when she appointed the veteran statesman to the most ancient military office in her realm, the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

For in ancient days the Lord Warden was responsible for the defence of that same east coast of England. In fact, for centuries the the Cinque Ports provided practically the only form of naval defence England possessed. Each of the five—Dover, Sandwich, Hythe, Romney and Hastings—owed maritime service to the king of five ships, to serve for 15 days in the year.

But Sir Robert Menzies will have little need for naval knowledge when he takes up his post next year. The sea has long retreated from most of the Cinque Ports, leaving them high and dry a mile or more from the shore. Only Dover remains a harbour for ships.

Nor is he likely to have the opportunity, seized in wartime

by his illustrious predecessor Sir Winston Churchill, of firing the big guns above the cliffs of Dover against the enemy in France.

There is a peculiar magic about this “Saxon Shore,” where today delightful old towns, still with cobbled streets, dream of the days when they were bustling ports, and sheep graze on green fields where once the sea held sway.

Imprint Of History

In The Earth The Imprint of history can still be seen in the earth itself—the great defensive ditches excavated by the Roman legions at Richborough Castle two thousand years ago: the crumbling, ivy-covered walls left by the glittering cohorts when they withdrew to defend Rome; the little bays where the Northmen hauled their sleek, dragon-headed ships above the tideline, first to plunder and slay then to settle in the green and pleasant land. In Roman times the Saxon Shore was the great defensive area linking the coastline be-

tween the Wash and Portsmouth. Here the legions built a chain of formidable strongholds. At Deal, where Julius Caesar saw his soldiers storm ashore, and in the busy streets of Dover, there is little sign of the early invaders.

But high above Dover, on the famous white cliffs, can be seen a Roman pharos, probably Britain’s first lighthouse. You can still see the smokeblackened stones left by the blazing beacon that once guided the galleys into Dover Harbour.

Later the Saxons of Hengist and Horsa were to invade in their turn, to make Kent their Kingdom, then defend it as the Romans had done.

Cut Off Hands, Ears, Noses The Cinque Ports may well have been established at this time, as bases for the Saxon fleet. Ethelred in 1009 gathered at Sandwich a fleet “larger than any man had seen or heard of,” to guard the land against the Danes. When Catthe left England in 1014 he put the English hostages ashore at Sandwich —after first depriving them of their hands, ears and noses. At Hastings, above the modern town, are the ruins of the Conqueror’s castle, where William camped before he marched the fateful miles inland to Senlac, and the battle that changed so decisively the course of history. But as a country boy whose political career has made him very aware of the enormous value to Australia of her wool industry, the new Lord Warden will find himself attracted to the “two ancient towns” of Winchelsea and Rye, added to the Cinque Ports soon after the Norman Conquest. For on the Romney Marsh still graze the hardy breed of sheep so popular with Australian graziers last century. Today the town of Rye, centuries ago a famous port, stands high and dry on a hill above Romney Marsh.

Keeping Eye On

The French

But every day the Keeper of the Gate goes to the ruined Strand gate of neighbouring Winchelsea to “look out for the French.” It is a duty for which he is paid £1 2s 6d a year. For this is the coast where for centuries ceaseless warfare was waged against marauding Frenchmen. It has also been known for centuries as “the smugglers’ coast.”

During the great era of smuggling in Britain, lasting broadly from the end of the seventeenth century to the start of the nineteenth century, new Romney was a flourishing centre for “the trade.”

But long before, during the reign of Edward I at the close of the thirteenth century, the earliest clashes between smugglers and the Government had taken place in this area. And it was not the import of French brandy and wines, or tea, coffee, silks and tobacco from across the channel, but the export smuggling of wool that caused the trouble.

Soon after the restoration of Charles II in 1660 the export- of wool was again entirely forbidden, and smuggling of it made punishable by death.

The famous “owlers” of the Romney Marsh (their sinister cries sounded like owl hoots it was said) shipped wool out of England from the Kent and Sussex coasts.

Under one clump of holly bushes by the road from Rye

to Lydd are said to be buried many murdered men of His Majesty’s excise.

The smugglers of Deal perfected a galley, known as a “death,” rowed with as many as 12 or 14 oars, and sometimes carry two sails. These boats were fast enough to show a clean pair of heels to any Government blockade vessel that tried interception, and some made the double trip to France and back in a single night. Their shallow draught enabled the galleys to creep up shallow, unguarded rivers and land their cargo some way inland.

All along England’s south coast, from Kent to Cornwall, church towers and churchyard tombs served the smugglers as hiding places for their goods. The pagoda-shaped bell tower of Brookland church, on Rommey Marsh, was used for the purpose, and legend has it that a certain parson of Brookland appointed himself custodian of the illicit cellar.

“Phantoms” To Deter The Curious To deter the curiosity of those who found it strange that lights should be flickering among the tombstones in the middle of the night, tales were put about that the lights were due to supernatural causes.

Some smuggling gangs even provided their own ghosts by rubbing one of their men with phosphorous and having him wander around the churchyard, uttering weird cries. Once the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports tried all offenders within his jurisdiction.

But. Sir Robert Menzies can safely leave the smugglers with their cartons of cigarettes, Swiss watches and bottles of brandy to Britain’s alert Customs officers.