The Harrison times., 1917-06-30
THE VIRGIN ISLANDS.
4 Brief Sketch Of Our New Posses.
sions, ST. Thomas, ST. CroE and
ST. John.


day and declaring war the next
To be exact we took peaceful posses.
sion of the Virgin Islands on March
81, 1917. On April congress declared
a state of war existed between the
United States and Germany. There
fore the flag of Denmark came down
only to be replaced by the flag OF the
United States which waved over the
islands for a short week in peace,
only to be hidden by the clouds of
war. A glance at the history of these
islands shows that they are accuS-
toned to changes Of flag. First dis
covered by Columbus in 1883 il was
not until the seventeenth century that
colonization began, when the Dutch
settled in ST Thomas in 1857 while at
the same time the French were set.
Ting in st. CrOiX. The three islands
while politically of one division are
not geographically connected, st,
Thomas and st. John lying together
at the north of the Virgin passage,
while St. Croix is to the south Of the
passage forty miles away.
ST. Thomas and ST. John.
St. Thomas and St John can he con-
sidered collectively, as they lie only
a few miles apart. These islands are
at the east end of a range Of noun
tains having their base on the bottom
of the sea and their tips more or
less above the water This is the
range that supports the great Antilles
and encloses the Caribbean Sea on
the north At the eastern end of this
submerged range we find st. Thomas
and st. John. The range then turns
south and completes the enclosure of
the Caribbean.
international PaWns.
The Virgin Islands have been used
as pawns many times in the gre&, in
ternational chess game st. Thomas
and St. John were originally settled
by the Dutch in the seventeenth cen
tury. In 1867 they came into the
hands of the British and were held
until 1871 when they passed into the
hands of the Danish West India Com
pany. This company was succeeded
in 1885 by the sO-called Brandenbur5
Company, the shareholders Of the lat
ter being mainly Dutch. In 1854 the
King of Denmark took over the is
lands. During this period the two
islands were declared free ports and
Denmarks neutrality during the Eu-
ropean wars of the early eighteenth
century gave the islands a commercial
impetus which lasted well into the
middle of the century In 1901 the
islands were held by the British and
again in 1907 to 1915, during which it
was the great rendezvous of British
merchant vessels waiting for convoy,
Passing back to Denmark the islands
became a burden to the mother coun'
try and in 1867 a treaty was con.
cluded by which the United States
were to buy them for seven and a
half million dollars. This fell through
when the United States senate failed
to ratify the treaty, showing that our
present senate is not without prece
dent in the matter of treaty failures
In 1902 another deal was almost con
cluded This time the price was to
be five millions but the Danish par.
lament baked at the last moment
Thereafter while the commercial val
ue Of the islands was at a low efb
the price steadily advanced and we
finally bought them for twenty-five
million dollars and took formal pos,
session on March 81, of this year.
St. Croix.
The island of St CroiX or Santa
Cruz, as some call it is the largest Of
the group. This island is catalogued
as one of Columbus discoveries, but
seems to have been owned in turn by
Dutch, British and Spanish Then in
1851 it was taken by France, and two
years later was given to the knights
of Malta by Louis the XIV, sharing
with the other islands the distinction
of being privately owned at times. IN
1888 st, CroiX was purchased by
Denmark.
A Splendid Naval Base,
The Virgin Islands were purchased
by the United States for the sole pur.
pose Of possessing the harbor Of st.
Thomas. No matter what else we
purchased, we have purchased a naval
base worth while, and It's value may
be demonstrated within a very few
years. The island of st. Thomas is
thirteen miles long and three miles
wide in It's widest part. On the south.
ern shore lies the town Of Charlotte
Amalie, or at least that is the Off.
cial name Of the postoffice, but every.