ADEN’S ANNIVERSARY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 46, 23 January 1939, Page 6

ADEN’S ANNIVERSARY.

Tjik youngest of Britain’s overseas colonies, and among the most important, Aden has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the hoisting there of the Union Jack for the first time in 1839. Bound up with the seafaring traditions of which the British Empire is so justly proud—to quote part of His Majesty’s message to the people of Aden—the territory is an essential link in Imperial maritime policy, and its importance has never been under-rated. Situated on the southern coast of Arabia, and lying on the lied Sea route between Europe and the East, it: has always been a significant possession , and never more so than today. Its trade declined with the discovery of the Cape route by the Portuguese, but with the opening of the Suez Canal it regained its importance, and to-day is a vital coaling and oil fuel station, and an emporium for the trade of the adjacent African and Arabian territories. It can also be said to constitute an outpost of the Indian Empire, for it is the only fortified point between Egypt and Bombay. In fact, Aden was for many years administered by the Government of India, but in 1932 it was separated from the Bombay Presidency and formed into a province with a Chief Commissioner under the direct control of the Indian Government. In .1937 it ceased to be part of British India and was accorded the status of a Crown Colony, with a Governor and Executive Council. Jt has a Court of unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, the Supreme Court, but in certain cases appeals lie to the High Court at Bombay. Aden is a tiny possession only 75 square miles in extent —- with a population of less than 50,000, but its trade is valuable: it is a. free port. J.t has its drawbacks; every traveller is familiar with the intense heat in which it swelters, and not a few have learnt of its shortage of good water, but the strength and importance of the colony lie in “the barren rocks of Aden.” For a hundred years they have rendered splendid service to the Empire, and as the second century of British control opens their value is undiminished.