A QUEEN OF REMOTE ISLANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 16, 18 July 1936, Page 27

A QUEEN OF REMOTE ISLANDS

■ A small, quiet woman returned to Britain;-recentlyfrom' one of the loneliest islands in the' British Empire, .Says the.'.'Sunday Express." Her name ds Rose Clunies-Ross. ..Twelve years ./ago'.she■ was a cashier in a London office. Today she* is virtually a -'queen," the only white woman among z population of 1500 Malays and twelve Britons. '". ■•>■■■.

. Her; husband, 60-year-old John. Sidney Clunies-Ross, is. sole ruler of the Cocos-Islands, a little-known part of ■the Straits Settlements, which are his by inheritance. To the "Sunday Excress," she told what it is like to be ,a. "queen" ~ of a "kingdom"' where steamers call' only once every fourmonths, and .where pieces of bone are rcurrency:—: .;.....

- The maps- call them the Cocos or Keeling Islands to distinguish • them irbrn> the'.'Cocos treasure island off Costa-Rica, she said. You will find .them tucked away in a corner of the Indian Ocean, 1280 miles. south-west of Singapore. There are three of them, Tinging a-lovely lagoon seven miles across.

My husband's great-grandfather, who forked witii Sir Stamford ;,Kafiles, founder of Singapore, discovered "them 110 years ago. They, were uninhabited then,,aridihe. brought forty Malays to the islandsVirom Java. Ever since then the Rosses have Lbeen '.'kings" of the : ;islands-T-"tuan governor," as the nativ.eS; call 'my husband;'-,' :> -■ ]r

There are''nearly 1500. of them' nbw,. simple people, living- shappi^r, unctis-' turbed.by the outer world; %%• had.;my first: :;.sight;,of them .eleven years Sago, as ;;a,\b'rideV' I had neverl travelled-fair before) arid I had no ide;a;\vhat ;tb;:expect;"" ■•>."" "'-r:/,:; i;'v;,-W:>

Ouirhomeis on Home; Island, ■and it is only about a mile.ibrigi'^Oh'^one of th'e i other islands, Direction''lsland, there, are ten othet,British men, employees of' a cable""coitnpany. < *•/

My first baby .was born on the island, but it died. Thereafter I came home to have, my next three children born. The fifth, Charles, was born on Cocos three years ago, and I have brought him with me to .Britain now. He can speak no English, as.he. has had only-native boys as his playmates. • . ',•■■ " ■ . ■ ' ■•■

Life passes, very, peacefully oh/Cqcos. Our only trouble is. the slump.in the price of copra. It has dropped from £33 to £10 a ton. Once it was aslow as £4 a ton.

It costs my husband v'about £4000 a year to run- the people and the island. They.all depend ' on' him: .Crime- is practically non-existent. We;have our own laws. One of them is that anyone who commits a crime shall be banished to civilisation. It is the happiest litle "kingdom" in the world. .

- Excitement and adventure are rare things. Occasionally natives who go fishing on the barrier reef, which protects the lagoon from the sea, have narrow escapes, but there have been no sudden deaths, r,

~ Once two natives went-.fishing for crayfish iivthe.rocks.'and one ; of theip, who inserted his arm in a rock crevice, was almost 'killed- by';,an eel. ;: ■

The ..eel" wound itself round the man's, arm,.and was drawing/him fast against' the'fock;' ~ Ifyjhis companionhad not been.there the mari: would have beeri-;.heldr a-1 prisoner until i the \ tide came, in and.drowned.hirii. As it was, the .othericih'an had to cut the.'.eel away. ■''/.:'■' ■' • ' ■':-■'"-■ '■

All-the natives are Mohammedails. My husband encourages them to niarryV and gives .a new house as a wedding present to;;each couple. All our supplies^haye^to be imported, once every four - months—\yhich is as often as we seeia ship; -dhless some passing liner slo\ys down to drop us a cask of food^ ■