The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-08-05
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Position Makes Them Valuable
Acquisition to the U. S.

ESo'liOH UCN NdludUIc
Acquisition to the U. S.
From commercial standpoint the
proposed purchase of the Danish West
Indies would not be profitable invest
ment for the United States; from
strategic standpoint such an opportuni
ty for profitable investment has rarely
fallen to the lot of any country.
St Thomas, st. CroiX and St John,
the three islands making up the col
ony, have altogether an area of less
than 1873 square miles and support at
the present time population OF 2S,-
600, which is Overwhelmingly negro.
These two figures do not suggest any
great importance, as commercial pow
err is judged today, nor do they hold
out much promise for the future 1t is
believed that IN recent years Den
mark has put more into its Caribbean
colony than it has gotten out of it,
either directly or indirectly.
There is little probability that the
productive capacity OF the islands
| in sugar, rum, COTTON, fruits, hides and
skins-can be very greatly increased.
| The area is too limited. Whatever
commercial progress is made in the fiji
ture must come largely through a
resurrection of harbor trade. Char
lotte Amalia, as the port on St
| Thomas Is called. was at one time the
central depot and distributing station
for goods from Europe and the United
States, purchasers from other West
Indian Islands and from parts of Cen
trail and South America going there
for supplies. But with the Inaugural
ton of better steamship services in
and around the West Indies, and with
the rise of direct tradingg, the glory OF
st. Thomas as a distributing station
began to fade. It's harbor tgade at
present is confined to selling coal and
water to such steamers as call for the
same and ito supplying goods to the
adjoining Virgin islands. Whether or
not the Danish West Indies eventual.
ly come into the possession Of the
United States the same network of
steamship lines and the same direct
trading which brought about the de-
cline in the harbor trade of ST.
Thomas viii tend to prevent its re-
newal, at least on any large scale.
But If time has been unkind to the
commercial standing OF the Danish
West Indies, they accupy a geographic
position which has made them in.
ceasingly important with the passage
of years. Located in that curyng
chain of islands stretching from the
southeastern coast of the United
States to the northern coast of South
America; from Havana, so miles from
Florida. as the northwestern extremi
ty, to Trinidad 90 miles off the coast
of Venezuela, as the southeastern, the
Danish West Indies control the cen
trail gateway to that vast area lyinl
on the Gulf of Mexico and the Carib
bean sea.
1t is in relation to the Panama ca
nal however, that the Danish Wos
Indies assume their greatest import
ance. Lying on the idrect route from
northern Europe to Panama, ant
nearer to the ports of the powerful
European nations than any other is
lands in the chain, ST. Thomas, evel
though l,l00 miles from Colon, stand
like a sentry guarding the approache
to the canal, Then, MS II nature hat
intended tho islands for this very pun
pose, il has provided in Charlotte
Amalia one of the best natural han
bors in all the West Indies. With al
entrance that Is narrow and deep
with harbor that is both deep am
spacious, and surrounded on all side
by range of relatively high hills tina
lend themselves readily to stron
fertilization, Charlotte Amalia has IN
greatest possibilities as a naval stt
u ton. II Is nearer to the canal tina
= the present United States naval st,
" ton at Guantanamo, on the island G
Cuba, and II is both nearer and a be
u ter natural harbor than San. Juai
on the island OF Porto Rico
And aside from this positive valu
OF the Danish West Indies in tn
s. scheme for the defense of the cana
lie there is value to the United State
n. on tn negative side that cannot b
Or overlooked. Their purchase would r.
at move for all time the possibility
I'd friction. If nothing worse, with one
the stronger nations of Europe oy,
the Monroe Doctrine. Even though
Y be assumed that there is little dang,
from this source, Il is still the fal
that as long as the islands remain