Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-03-12
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
THE MIQUELONS

Miquelon, island group off the
southern shore of Newfoundland, has
come into the headlines for widely
different reasons lately, and still few
readers know anything of this bit
of France in the New World.
A high French official has Just
solemnly promised that the islands
shall not pass from France.
Almost every rum-ship captured
lowering near the coast of the Unit
ed States is Officially bound for
st. Pierre-Miquelon, until prohibit
ton agents who have forgotten some
details of geography might consid-
er the port as mythical as Atlantis
or Ell Dorado. That the islands are
very definitely on the map is vouch-
ed for by the National Geographic
Society which has just issued from
its Washington, D.. c., headquarters
a bulletin dealing with them.
A "ConsoIation Prize'' for France
New France, which once meant
most of the Missouri and Arkansas
valleys and pretty much everything
between the Ohio River and the
North Pole" says the bulletin, "now
means only the tiny granite-ribbed,
fog shrouded MiquelonS. And even
this poor parish hat recalls a rich
empire has had a stormy time of it
remaining under the French flag.
ut had been captured from
France by Great Britain before
Wolfe's victory at Quebec marked
the beginning of the end of French
control in Canada; and when the de-
feated nation coded it's vast areas
to Britain, the latter gave back the
u = ~ --- -
prize The little islands were to
| serve as a base on this side of the
Atlantic for the French fishermen
who had built up an important in
dustry on the Newfoundland banks
as had the British themselves. The
unsettled status of the islands con-
tinued, however, and between 1868
and 1915 they changed hands half a
dozen times, sometimes being de-
populated. Since 1915 France has
held undisputed control.
Once Leading Fishing Port of World
est. Pierre, the capital and chief
port of the islands, became very
prosperous as a result of the thirty
ing French fisheries, and in 1884 1t
was the leading fishing port of the
world. There were handsome homes
in the little town and a social life
that made st. Pierre a miniature
Paris. But the Miquelons' prosper
ity and gaiety were cut short by a
prosaic factor-bait. Affairs of en-
pire in 1904 moved statesmen in
Paris to sell the French treaty rights
to catch small fish ON the Newfound-
land coast for some millions of
francs and territory in Africa. The
Newfoundland fSharpoon bod hppu
jealous of their French rivals on the
banks, especially since a generous
government subsidy enabled the
French to undersell all competitors
in the principal world markets.
Newfoundland soon passed the Bait
Act which prohibited the sale of
bait to ships of aliens, and from that
time the prosperity of the islands has
waned.
The Miquelons
"St. Pierre is now only a gray lit
tie village with a past, but no ap-
parent future. A quarter of the
houses are vacant. and the quays,
once thronged with vessels whose
yard-arms interlocked, now have
but a sprinkling of ships, even at the
height of the fishing season. When
bait was plentiful st. Pierre was a
real base of operations. Now the
decimated French fishing feet oper-
ates from France, putting in at st.
| Pierre only incidentally. Economl-
| callv these last of Frances North
| American possessions amount to lit
tie; but France values them for the
same reason that Great Britain has
| valued Newfoundland; as a field for
the training of seamen, and there
! fore as a strengthened of her navy.
A Breath of Old France
The Miquelon archipelago con-
sists of Grand Miquelon, some IL
miles long by six wide, Petite Mique-
Ion or Longlade, a trifle smaller, and
st, Pierre, only seven miles by two.
In addition there r a number Of
tiny rocky islets of little importance.
st. Pierre, though the smallest of
the three major islands, has always
been the center of population be-
cause of it's harbor. In the days Of
it's prosperity the town had 5000
residents and 10000 additional
Frenchmen sometimes thronged it's
streets during the fishing season.
Now the village never sees more
thar 5000 people at any time. Many
of its discouraged residents have en-
igrated to the United States.
"The visitor stepping ashore at st.
Pierre, enters France as truly as
when he disembarks at Calais or
Bordeaux. The language is surpris-
ingly pure and free from patios.
Wooden houses with characteristic
French windows and roofs line the
streets. Natives clatter back and
forth in wooden soled shoes. Huck-
ster children. quantity dressed, ped
die strings of cod-tongues from lit
tie wagons drawn by patient dogs.
On every hand are shrines testifyins
to the religious nature of the Mique-
laise.
What was long the only French
cable to the New World emerges
from the Atlantic at st. Pierre and
then continues from that station to
the Massachusetts coast. But even
as a news door to America the Mi
queIons no longer seem essential
Since 1898 a second French cable
has stretched directly from France
to the United States.
"A political detail Is eloquent OF
the changed status of the Miquelons.
At st. Pierre is the Governors Resi-
dence.' But no governor now graces
it. In those days of their decad-
ence, the affairs of the Miquelaise
are attended to by an 'Administra-
tor"
|137 PHONE HON 1910
C.rn-kH K1ra- ~ ~ V