New Britain herald., 1924-04-04
WINDWARD ISLANDS
 ARE LITTLE KNOWN
They Are, However, Famed as
 'Isles Of Spice'

Washington, D. C., April 3.-Thf Windward Islands Colony, to which London is sending new governor and commander-in-chief. is one of the least known, to Americans. oi British territories in the New World A bulletin from the Washington, D C., headquarters of the National Geo. graphic society describes it.
 'Windward Islands means differ ent things on different maps." says the bulletin, and to add to the con- fusion several other quite distinct names are applied to the whole and to parts of the islands that sweep in a great arc from Porto Rico to the top of South America. The entire group of little islands is known most properly. perhaps. as the Lesser An titles the Greater Antilles consisting of the larger islands, beginning with Porto Rico, that reach back toward ; the Gulf of Mexico.
 ' Scene of French and British strife
 All of the southern half of the Lesser Antilles is sometimes called the Windward Islands the term in- cluding Martinique, St. Lucia, St.
 
 Tobago and Trinidad. Britain's s .Windward Islands colony however, means something definite; the three fair-sized islands. St. Lucia, St. Vim cent and Grenada. and the tiny islets near Grenada known as the Grena- dimes.
 About this little group of islands France and England fought more stubbornly than about any other bit of American territory. Over and over again they changed hands be- treen 1859 and 1874 as the West 1n- Han fleets of first one and then the other of the two great nations were victorious. Since the latter date all three of the islands and the Grena- dimes have remained British possess eions.
 Charming Tropic Isles.
 "The windward Islands are we'll in the tropics being in the latitude of Nicaragua. the Philippines and south ern India, and they are as charming examples of tropical isles as can be found in any ocean. All are noun tainous, and over the sharp peaks, deep valleys and more gentle slopes of all is thrown an intensely green mantle of tropical trees, shrubs and grasses All were people by the war like Carib Indians when Columbus and other Spanish navigators discov- cred them. But these were largely killed off or transported during the next few centuries by British and French settlers. Most of the inhabi- tants of the islands today are black and are traceable to the slave ships that brought over their African car goes during early colonial develop ment. On st. Vincent. which was lons left to the natives, several slave chips were wrecked and the survivors mingled with the Carlos so that on that island there Is . more pro- nouncsd Indian strain than else where.
 'on each of the islands is q small minority of white officials. land owners and business men. Each of the three larger islands has It's own local government machinery under a British administrator, and over all Is the governor. who resides in st Georges. chief city of Grenada. The governments are Grown Colonies,' the officials being appointed from London
 St. Lucia was to Have Been
 'Caribban Gibraltar
 France held on longest 10 st Lucia and in the enthusiastic days of Napoleon hoped to make 1t the capi- ,aI of ths Antilles and the Gibraltar of the Caribbean But the hope died when the treaty of 1874 gavv St. Lucia to Great Britain and nov only Martinique and Guadaicupe and its islets remain of the once important French Antilles.
 "st, Lucia, 77 miles long by 1s miles wide. might be said 10 exist solely for its hsrbor, Port Castries. This superb haven. probably unsur- passed by any harbor in the Americas, was to have been Frances Gibraltar. Britain has made 1t one of her most important naval bases and coaling stations and has heavily fortified 1t. A narrow bottle-neck passage of deep water leads to what ia in effect a great, deep fake of salt water. Deep- drausht ships of war or trade tie up directly to the piers on which lie mountains of coal. Armies of black men and women coal the ship by carrying laden baskets aboard. Most of the population of the island is concentrated in Castries, dependent on 1 the coaling activities. while large l part of the hack country Is abandoned | to it's wild state; but it is threaded l -1th good roads that wind among its 1 ricturesoue hills and tropical forests
 Had Volcanic Tragedy.
 "st Vincent, the middle If the i three islands. had terrible tragedy | Tn the eruption of it's own volcano at i the time that Nit Peiee destroyed q l populus city and devastated q large l area of country in Martinique. in | 1902. The northern third of st | Vincent was devastated and nearly | 5000 lives were lost on the island. 1 Now the brilliantly green tropical | foliage is creeping hack over the ash | Leaps to hide the evidence of this holocaust.
 "st. Vincent has in it's botanic gar den an importance to the Western | Hemisphere little known. There were introduced first tropical products from the rest of the world which, i distributed from there. have estab- iished some of the most important \ and lucrative industries of the West Indies and the Americas. Various vegetables and fruits and spices are in the list II Grenada. southernmost of the three islands ,is the most beautiful and most charming. and at the same time, the best developed. It farms almost a true eilipse 20 miles long