DOMINICA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4544, 4 March 1942, Page 7

DOMINICA

CARIBBEAN BLACK REPUBLIC A TINY, PLUCKY ALLY (By 5.8.) One of the most amazing consequences of the treacherous Japanese attack on America on 7th December, 1941, was the declaration of war against Japan made by the Dominican Republic within 48 hours of Japan’s assault. In one stroke General Rafael Trujillo cleared himself of the accusations of pro-Eascist foreign policy. This man is probably the most startling character in the Caribbean. He is a Mulatto from the hills, and in his youth was gaoled for forgery, but went into the National Guard. He learned military organisation from the United States marines, then occupying the country, and when the marines left he turned this good knowledge to bad ends. Forming a ges-tapo-like system of terrorism, he gradually dominated the Repubic. His enemies were exiled or thrown into dungeons that have killed men for 500 years. He ruled the country as a dictator, and used Fascist methods. His friends say that any strong man in Latin America must use these methods to prevent revolutions. DOMINICA’S DICTATOR He is monomaniacal, and the subject of the mania is himself. He renamed the capital Santo Domingo as Ciudad Trujillo! half the streets in the town are named after him; his name shines, in great electric lights over the capital—God and Trujillo. The mountains follow the custom. He has built roads and massacred 17,000 Haitian settlers on the frontier. His Madrid embassy was the Franco centre during the civil war in Spain. But Trujillo has granted an immense tract of land from his perspnal property to help refugees. One of his coastguard ships is said to have fuelled a German submarine at sea. Yet he says Hitler is only an evil imitation of Trujillo. He is the chameleon of the West Indies. Trujillo is a product of a fascinating nation. Only Dominica could have produdced such' a man. On 6th December, 1492, Columbus found the island and named it Hispaniola, “Little Spain.’’ To-day the island is split into two republics, both black. One third is named Haiti, and has 3,000,000 citizens. Dominica spreads over two thirds, but can boast only 1,500,000 people. Columbus realised the value of the harbour made by the mouth of the Ozama River. To-day proud Dominicans show visitors the trunk of a large ceiba tree to which his flagship was moored. There were at that time five separate nations of Indians, the most peaceful tribes on earth, for the Caribbean natives never knew war. In 1496 Columbus ordered his brother, Bartholomew, to found a settlement on the Ozama, and named it Santo Domingo. This is the modern Ciudad Trujillo. GOLD AND GLORY Gold was thick in the mountain rivers, and within twenty years the Spaniards had killed every Indian on the island in their search for gold. The race completely vanished. But this fact is lost in the sheer glory of the history of the island during the next century. The capital was the centre of Spanish rule in the Caribbean. Every great figure in the history of Spain’s conquests of Mexico, Central America, and South America walked through the streets of Trujillo City Pizarro, Cortez, Balboa. The port was crammed with the treasure fleets of Spain, which always made it a rendezvous before crossing the Atlantic, and the fighting that is recorded in nearby waters has been told in hundreds of volumes. The buccaneers began nearby, for they were French pirates who landed on the Haiti side and cooked their meat on spits over great fires, with orange juice and herbs. The streets of the city are to-day as they were in the times of the conquistadores. Entering by the road from Port-au-Prince, in Haiti—an excellent motor road crosses the island —one passes in by the Homage Tower, an old fortress now used as a gaol. It looks over the harbour from coral cliffs, and if one stands on its battlements one sees the city below like a great man-made coral reef. Coral was the ancient building material. 'Some buildings are pink, others blue, but mostly they are silvery grey with age. The great central square is the Parque de Colon, named after Columbus, or Colon, who stands on a marble pedestal in the centre. PROUD POSSESSIONS Behind the statue is the Metropolitan Cathedral. Visitors are always surprised to find such a Christian monument in such a tiny city—the capital contains 72,000 people. It was founded in 1535, and built in the Spanish Romanesque style. Just inside is the tomb of Columbus, which was given by Italy. It is white marble, and stands out sharply against the dim and vast interior of the building. Columbus’ ashes lie there, below the magnificent sweep of the nave and transept. The city boasted, the first university

in the Americas. This was housed for 300 years in the ex-Convento Dominica, or Duarte Square. It was such an excellent university that Santo Domingo was called the Athens of the New World. Elsewhere there are ruins, such as those of the San Francisco Cathedral, the remains of Diego Columbus’ house, San Geronimo Castle, and even the ruins of the first Roman Catholic chapel constructed in America in 1493.

The city’s pride, however, is the cathedral. Since 1817 it has carried the title of Primate of America. Inside it is ancient Gothic, and the massive cylindrical columns represent palm trees supporting the bulk of the structure upon their interlacing leaves. Columbus died in 1506, in Spain, and his remains were brought here in 1544. They are in a glass casket inside a bronze urn, and they rest near the rem'ains of his sister-in-law, Dona Maria de Toledo, and his grandsons, Don Christopher and the Duke of Verguas. The cathedral is adorned with the most valuable church paintings on the (continent. The best is by an unknown artist, and shows the Kings of Spain kneeling at each side of the Virgin praying for America. This painting was ordered by Fernando and Isabella to reward Columbus. There is also a famous painting of the Apostles by Murillo, and a Velasquez Virgin. The Capitol, or Parliament House, and the Dictator’s palace are white palaces of modern design, for a great deal of the city was wiped out in the hurricane of 1930. Not a trace remains of the damage: the disaster gave the authorities an opportunity to build a new city. Washington took great interest in the Republic. Its finances were so bad in 1905 that Theodore Roosevelt, to prevent occupation by other Powers to collect debts, placed a receiver in the capital. In 1916 revolution forced Woodrow Wilson to land marines, who stayed until 1922, when a provisional Government of Dominicans was formed and a constitution created. To-day, the Government is legally through a Senate of sixteen members and a Chamber of 52 deputies. Sugar, cocoa, coffee, and mahogany make the Republic richer than the proverbially poor Haiti.

Whether the black Republic’s red-and-white flag with its white cross will ever appeal’ in the Pacific depends on Trujillo. He is a personality who will certainly try to impress the world and it is not improbable that he will send a contingent of troops to join the United States forces in the Pacific.