TWO ISLANDS

Evening Post, Issue 25, 30 January 1935, Page 16

TWO ISLANDS

THE LIQUOR TRADE

RUINED BY REPEAL

USELESS STOCKS

Set in a protecting curve of the rugged southern coast of Newfoundland are two tiny islands, ' barren and rocky, which, in the past decade, have received far more notoriety than their tptalarea of ninety-three square miles would seem to deserve, writes Lewis B. Sebring in the "Literary Digest". They, are St. Pierre and Miquelon, the last remnants of the once-great French colonial empire in North America, for three centuries the North Atlantic base for the fisherfolk of Continental France, and, in recent years, the reputed source of much of the liquor smuggled into the United States during prohibition. Repeal came,, and the islands seemed destined ,for a return: to the oblivion of a v mere cod-fishing ■ existence ■-, from which they suddenly rose iri .1920, but, now, the r .United States Government hints unofficially that they, again have become the.-bas'e\-for a new rum-row which is springing up, off the Atlantic Coast. ...■■••■■ .-,...■ 'it ".'may .be true,. but a visit to St. Pierre tends to disprove the allegation.' The liquor is there, no doubt of that, in tremendous quantities, and for sale at unbelievably low prices, but instead .of regarding it as the source of another golden harvest,' the people have, come to look upon the immense stocks as a white elephant. America, it seems,; never again is -likely to.be- as good-to St. Pierre as it was in the 'halcyon years from 1920 to 1930. Instead, St. Pierre- and Miquelon,shaped geographically like a question mark, have become the symbols .of a, great question, in. the minds of the' quiet, kindly who inhabit the; land:

"What of our-future?"

CHANGED TIMES.

Times have changed, and the peoplo have changed since.the happy days before the World .War when fishing off the Grand Banks was the sole ocenpa-, tion'of the Perrais. Visits.from their, .Continental,'''kin* have become., less and less frequent, as '.great -'steam-trawlers' frdm France; come .to the: Banks;' with-;

out stopping at St. Pierre,, and return in the same way. Modern fishing meth.odshave supplanted the ones to which the Perrais are accustomed, and they are the losers, though: they still have their old boats and equipment.: • More^serious titan that is the change in the people. Prohibition utterly spoiled them, with its easy money and thrilling adventures. Thousand-dollar bills flowed into their honiespun pockets like water, and flowed out again as easily. How could anyone resist the temptation of making as much in a week of rum-running as he previously had made in a year of cod-fishing J Then repeal. The easy money was gone; enormous stocks of liquor from all over the world were left in warehouses, most of the latter bearing the dates 1928 and 1929; Canada and New-foundland-tightened restrictions against liquor importation; Americans bade a hasty farewell to.the bleak islands; and, worst of all, the people hated to return to the life which they had known for centuries. EASY COME, EASY GO. As one of them summed it up: "It was a case of easy come, easy go. We were happy before. Then everything seemed so much better during your prohibition. Now my people won't return to fishing, and there is no work. We don't liko to think of what is ahead." Barring a return of the daring rumrunning syndicates, the only hope for income for, the islanders seems to.be tourists, and that is a bet which may not be overlooked by the Perrais. In it they have a stock in trade which may not prove to be as lucrative as rum-running, but it will be much more certain. Visitors will be more pleased than with a journey to other parts of North America. '

St. Pierre is truly French, in appearance, as far as that is possible with the weather-beaten little houses set among the rocky headlands, as w-ell as in loyaJty to the homeland. The tricolour of France waves proudly from the waterfiont buildings. The gendarmes who meet the ship remind one of Boulogne, Cherbourg, or Brest.

The French of France is spoken exclusively among the people, but r asa bequest of their ten years of contact with Americans, and through necessary association with the people of Newfoundland fifteen miles away, those who ax* in business have a working knowledge, of the English language. All the con-, tacts of the country are French.

To France the people go for infrequent pilgrimages, while, from France, they receive their newspapers and most articles of commerce.

They feel^that the French do not reciprocate properly, a belief which adds no little to the present state of uncertainty in which the colony finds itself. In August of 1933 two French war vessels,'the light cruisers d'Entrecasteaux and'Ville d'Ys, appeared in

the harbour of St. Pierre, but they wero not altogether welcome, for they had been sent by the home Government to quell riots over what the people felt was unnecessary taxation. A PEACEFUL MISSION. There was great rejoicing this year j when it became known, howe\er, that a French ship was due on a peaceful mission—the Champlain, carrying gov-' ernmental officials to the Jacques Cartier 400th anniversary observances in | Canada. Today the village is much like it was just after the World War—the glaring white Government buildings set in a three-sided squaro bofore Uower-filled Le-Place Mareehai Foch, the quaint little Eoman Catholic cathedral in a square behind them, the row on row. of unpaintcd, yet impressive, stores and houses on tho hillside streets. Over all, there is a neatness recalling the villages of the Breton and Basque provinces i from which most of the ancestors of the 4000 islanders came. .

So, St. Pierre and Miquelon, tho barren, picturesque, unfortunate French c6lony of the North Atlantic, faces the future, with warehouses filled with an unsaleable product, kept out of Canada even by aeroplane patrols of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, with brandy selling at such prices as 1.50 dollars a quart in any store, and there are mauy, and American cigarettes at less than half price, with French, American, Canadian, Newfoundland, Eng lish, and even Spanish money passing interchangeably, at par,, and with the hopes pinned by the still cheerful people on the appreciation by tourists' of rock bound coastal scenery unequalled in much of North America for impressiveness.