27 AUGUST 1921, Page 3

We are interested to learn from the New York Herald

that the Bahamas have profited by American Prohibition, much as they profited by the Civil War. When the North declared a blockade of the Southern ports, Nassau became the centre for the blockade-runners which took supplies and munitions into Charleston and brought out cargoes of cotton, for which Lan- cashire was ready to pay almost any price. After that brief period of prosperity, Nassau went to sleep again until it was discovered last year by the American liquor-smugglers. It imports and exports of spirits are now said to be. prodigious. There are not warehouses enough to hold the liquor, and house- holders let all their spare rooms at high rents to the whisky merchants, Labourers who used to earn 4s. a day can now make £5 by helping to load schooners at night with cases of liquor. The Colonial Government collected £170,000 last year in liquor duties. The inhabitants of the Bahamas must be warm admirers of Prohibition—for America.