AMERICA'S WARDS.*
,Mx. Enaictitc, ,the American traveller who has written :enter- taining :books about -many -countries, has just produced a most readable and :welhilluetrated book on the West Indies. He .went south, . apparently in the autumn of 1919, to Cuba, and thence worked his way :through Haiti, Santo Domingo, Porto Rico, and the Virgin Isles-to the Leeward and Windward Islands, returning by Trinidad and Curacao to Colon and:home by way of Jamaica. He gives his impressions of almost every island of note, and is particularly _outspoken • in .bis contempt for the British West Indies. But this ;main purpose :is to describe the American West Indies, and to these. he devotes theeetiourths the volume. British readers, who are accustomed to :receive advioe.from some Americans as-to how the Britt/di Empire should be governed, will observe with mild surprise that this shrewd American.tra.veller did not find perfect peace and uontentment even in the American dependencies. Cuba is :not, strictly speaking, an American Protectorate, though America .keeps a watchful eye on her. The island .is; governed by "an ignorant and avaricious clique ".- of Cubans ; corruption and inefficiency are universalin the public service. " TP.4411 even greater.extent than with us the beet men shun political -office." Porto Rico Roaming 211010 the West India. By 1Birry A. Franck. London : T. Fisher Unwin. (25s. net.1
" complains that it is . an organized but not ,an incorporated territory of the United States," and there is strong political party which.demands independence. Upon this Mr. Franck remarks : "There. is of course-no-more reason why Porto Rico should have her independence than that Merida should."
at.any rate is not prepared .to apply _the. doctrine of '.`-self- , determination " And indiseriminate/y. _Porto Rico, he says, is not fit to govern .herself:; Americans pay -too much attention to Latin-American criticism. "We are not need to the sob-eloquence of the race, wlaicia_sit ,bottom means very little." It is an odd though true saying from an-author who must. have heard, and read a .great, deal, .of Irish-American sob- eloquence " about the , alleged .wrongs of Ireland. Yanglieh is little spoken in Porto ,Rico, and after „twenty years of ,American rule , only a third of the children are being educated. _Porto Rico dPDHCIY:PORDIAted, with nearly 400 persons to:the square mile, and there is not enough employment.for all. The Socialists are trying to stir up the poor labourers _against the American sugar companies which form the chief industry of -the island. As ,for the Virgin .Islands, Mr. .Franck thinks that America made a bad bargain in paying Denmark 25,000,000 dollars for them, though of course the harbour of St. Thomas is an invaluable naval station. The islands are governed autocratically by an American Admiral, " until our busy Congress finds time to establish another form of government," and the islanders expect Washington to bear the whole expense of administration. In St. Croix there is a strong racial movement among the negroes, who, in Mr. Frank's opinion, are unduly favoured by the authorities.
Haiti and Sante Domingo stand in a different category. Haiti is an American Protectorate, on . much the same footing as Egypt. Santo Domingo is in American occupation, much as Mesopotamia is in British occupation. In the early part of 'the Great War President Wilson took possession of these two independent negro 'Republics. 'In 1915 'Haiti was having one of its customary revolutions. The President, Guillaume Sam, -massacred all his political -prisoners ; their friends -rose, dragged Sam out -of the "French Legation and lynehed
Such things-had happened before.in Haiti, but President Wilson thought -that Haiti's right to "self-determination" -had been exceeded. He landed marines, occupied the country and -com- pelled the Haitians to sign a treaty giving them American "assistance'" for at least -twenty years. No -doubt -it -was high time to do -this. Yet many Haitians are -not grateful for the benefits conferred -upon -them. They resent, too, the strict colour-line drawn by the American marines, most of whose officers are 'Southerners. Many of these Haitian Skin Feiners, who are called " tacos," have taken to the bush -and there conduct a guerrilla war against the Americans. Like their fellow-rebels -in Ireland, they are -addicted to laying ambushes for small parties of marines or police and 'butcher their victims with the utmost -ferocity, -but they will rarely fight on even terms and are very hard to catch. Mr,- Franck telissome interesting-anecdotes cif -the War. between the American troops and the Haitian revolutionaries, :which began three years ago and will, he thinks, last " for years to come." The "sago "-leader was a General Charlemagne who, having-escaped from gaol where he was serving a sentence for highway, xobberY, raised the 'standard of revolt against the Americans. :Many natives who disliked forced labour on the new roads which:the country eerely needs joined Charlemagne. Those who would not join him were murdered or robbed. Re posed as the deliverer of ',Haiti from white •oppreesion, • as though he were a second Toussaint L'Ouverture. To the American mind the ".eaeo " does -not appeal with the romantic charm -of the Sinn Feiner. Mr. Franck ,records with much.satis- faction -how in 1919 a young marine officer tracked ,down Charlemagne in the bush and shot lira, and how the corpse -.was exhibited in the chief towns as a warning to the "tacos " and their sympathizers. It is clear that in Haiti, as elsewhere, _order is-the first requisite of reform. The .author in :his description of the country refers repeatedly to the ruins of the old French plantations and irrigation works. Haiti, once a :rich and :flourishing colony, has returned to a. state of nature -in the century since the .negroes revolted, and tare,-Americans have to do the-,work of the French all over again, both-for the country nand for the people who have reverted to their African barbarism.
,Santo:Domingo was occupied by American marines in W16 during a revolution. The President resigned, and the Opposition candidate for the post- ware refused recognition. Since then American naval and-marine officers have conducted " The Military Government of the United States in Santo Domingo" and appoint and control all the local officials. Like General Maoready in Ireland, the American-Admiral set himself to disarm the natives. He fixed a date by which all weapons must be given up ; persons found with arms after that date were sharply punished. Nevertheless, there are revolutionaries striving for " self. determination" i n Santo Domingo. They are called " gavilleros," and they are better fighters than the " cocoa" of Haiti. " One band has announced a determination com- pletely to exterminate the white foreigners and makes a practice of horribly mutilating the dead and wounded." More than thirty marines have been. killed in this insurrection, as against only four in Haiti. Mr. Franck says that " the forces of occu- pation- might in ammo ways have handled this bandit situation better than they did ; largely because of ignorance of local customs, partly because 'of inefficiency and' a certain amount of brutality, they made something of a mess of it or at least let it become more serious than it need have done." The- province of Seibo; the chief-seat of the insurrection, is said by the author to have become disaffected because a popular Sinn- Feiner or " gavillero " was betrayed and shot. According to Mr. Franck, the Dominicans in general dislike the occupation, partly because of the military rule and the censorship, partly because of- the colour-line, for the Domirdears " see no justice in ranking a well-educated- influential citizen of- more than the American average of culture in the same socially impossible category as an illiterate black dock-labourer simply bemuse his hair is curly and his complexion slightly dulled." It is interesting to learn from a writer who knows Spain and Spanish America well that while the French of Haiti has become an unintelligible jargon, " the most uneducated Dominicans spoke a Spanish almost as clear and precise as that heard in the streets of Madrid." There must, as he says, be something enduring in the Castilian language, which he reproves his countrymen for- neglecting. Mr. Franck maintains that Santo Domingo is wholly unfit for self-government, and that-American rule, which has already done much for the country, ought to be maintaleed for at least half a century, by which time the generation educated in the new schools will have come to years of discretion. We sympathize heartily with the Americana in their self-denying efforts to cleanse two notorious plague-spots in the Western hemisphere. Their hard experience will perhaps help them to understand our difficulties under similar conditions in the East.
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