The L'Anse sentinel., 1923-06-08
Set Down Amidst Warning Re.
publics of Central America 1t
Has Remained Peaceful.

Washington, d. C.-Belize, which Of
hcially is British Honduras, has rev.
olution, according TO press dispatches.
= To those who know Belize this Is like
the report Of volcanic eruption In
New York or blizzard In Death Val
ley. A bulletin from the Washington.
ID. c., headquarters of the National
Geographic society tells why.
"Set down in the midst of group
OF republics In which revolutions have
been at least not infrequent for the
century of their existence" says the
bulletin, Bellies bid to fame has
been that II was 100 per cent revolu-
tionless. Although 1t Is one OF the
least known and most neglected patches
of the British empire, still British law
and order lowered over it, and 1t has
West Indian colony Of Curacao, an asy-
tlum for alien leaders who were more
revolutionary than successful.
\ 1.-THE country's $4,000 inhabitants In
clude probably less than 1000 whites.
The remainder of the population Is
made up of negroes and mulattos and
Spanish Indians, the latter living chief.
lily in the back country. But In the
capital, Belizo, throughout the whole
coast country, and wherever govern
mental machinery has been set up the
atmosphere, whether II be made up OF
business, government, or sport, Is un-
mistakably British.
uI'a,r hayn hanY, ,,oHa tn
the climate. The two and three-story
houses that line the main residence
street of Belize are of accepted British
architecture.
Geographic Names Tell Story.
Geographic names tell of the sud-
den transition from the lands of Span
ish culture to this little patch of the
Spanish Main that has been Angllcized.
One leaves Puerto CorteZ, Honduras,
or Puerto Barros, Guatemala, to sail
few miles farther on past the Cox
comb mountains, All Pines, and STAN
creek. Inland are MiddleseX and
Orange Walk. Belize is one Of the
few exceptions, and even that Is said
TO be a corruption of the surname Of
an early Scotch settler, Wallis.
British Honduras, trine larger
than Massachusetts or New Jersey, is
wedged In between the Mexican states
of the Yucatan peninsula on the north
and Guatemala on the west and south,
while Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador,
and Costa Rica are nearby.
"The mahogany industry Is justly
commemorated on the flag Of British
Honduras by the representation there
of the tools of the trade. Mahogany
lured early settlers to Belize; put
money in their purses; furnished some
thing for them and their hacker. Great
Britain, to fight the Spaniards about;
and has ben chiefly responsible for the
lands main industry, numbering.
British Honduras came under the
British flag largely through the we'll
known 'squatters' rights grown to in
ternational stature. Spain claimed the
entire 'Main,' or mainland, from the
atfne of the earliest explorers. But
she was interested chiefly In gold and
silver; mere trees seemed beneath no
ttice. SO British and other adventur-
Egs who cut timber on the eastern
coast Of Yucatan, the present British
Honduras, and the mosquito country.
farther south. were not molested at
Drst.
"When the settlers were seen to be
suaking a good thing of their mahog-
xny trade, the Spanish changed their
policy and began harassing them. A
series of wars and treaties between
Spain and Great Britain followed. In
1893 the Spanish made supreme eff
fort to drive what they considered the
'rquatters' out of Belize. But the set
tiers, with cannon mounted on
RATS and flat-boats had the best of
the strategic situation and won sig