Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-13

British Honduras. often known as
Belize" from the name of its capital
city, is che Of the least known and one
of the most neglected patches OF the
British empire With its vastly more
important sister country, Canada and
Newfoundland it shares the distinction
Of being the only British territory on
the continent of North America.
British Honduras is part OF Cen
trail America. and its real bid to fame
has been that it was 100 per cent revo-
lutionless, says bulletin from the
National Geographic Survey. In spite
of the fact that in many ways 1t Is
neglected, still British law and order
hover over it; and it has been TO
certain extent, like the Dutch west
indian colony of Curacao, an asylum
Tor political leaders of neighborlng
| lands who were more revolutionary
| than successful.
The countryS $4,000 inhabitants in
clude probably less than l 900 whites.
The remainder CT the population is
made up of Negroes and mulattoes and
Spanish Indians, the latter living
chiefly in the back country. But in
the capital, Belize; throughout the
whole coast country and wherever gov
ernmental machinery hGs been set up.
the atmosphere, whether it be made up
CT business, government or sport, Is
Enthusiastically British.
Policemen Like "BObbieS."l--.-~
Few concessions have been made to
the climate. which may be described as
tropical tempered by rather steady sea
breezes. The two and three story
houses that line the main residence
street of the capital CITY, B2lize. are
of accepted British architecture. Coal
black policemen are clothed much like
the London Bobby and bewigged and
begcwned judges sit in the courts. In
the open spaces cricket matches Will
often be found in progress, and boxing
bouts arc preferred by the broad-a
pronouncing Negroes to the cock fights
and bull fights of their LatinizeS
neighborS.
Geographic names tell of the sudden
transition from the lands of Spanish
culture to this little patch OF the Span
ish Main that has been Anglicized. One
leaves Puerto Cortez, Honduras or
Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, TO sail a
few miles farther on past the CoXcomb
Mountains. All Pines and Siam Creek.
Inland are MiddleseX and Orange Walk.
Belize is one of the few. exceptions, and
even that is said to be a corruption CT
the surname of an early Scotch settler,
Wallis. Direct English nomenclature
reaches its apex in Belize, where the
ferry is called 1.-The haul-over."
British Honduras, trifie 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. 1t IS due
west of Jamaica, some 600 miles across
the Caribbean, and has always been to
certain extent under the wing OF
that British island.
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 the coast, put
money in their purses, furnished some
thing for them and their hacker, Great
Britain. to fight the Spaniards about
and has always been chiefly response
BILE for the lands main industry, lum-
bering.
City Built on Chips.
The people of the colony even tell
solemnly how the lowest portions of
the city CT Belize. once a seemingly bot
tomleSs swamp, have been filled in and
made disable by the millions of mahog-
any chips hacked there from logs which
must be roughly squared b2fore they are
ready for market. Assisting the chips
in the work of tabilization-they tell
with equal solemnity-were the thou
sands of empty rum bottles thrown
aside by the aXmen.
Formerly the timber industry was a
very casual affair. Early settlers cut
down the trees near. the beach, loaded
them and sailed away.
Later the timber along the rivers was
cut and floated down to the coast.
Most of the easily accessible timber
has been cut now and transportation
is more of a problem. Some tremend-
Gus logs are handled. weighing 20 or
80 tons each. A unique scene is the
shaking out" of these logs from the
forest by OK teams in the cool of the
night by the light of torches. After
the logs reach the coast they are
squared and lashed together into huge
RATS. There is a great coral barrier
reef about 10 miles off the coast of
British Honduras outside which the
largest ships must anchor. The great
RATS are towed out to the ships by
steel cables and wincheS. They are
then broken up and the separate tim
DerS holSted aboard Dy cranes. Inc
lives of the workers on the RATS is
none too secure. Rough seas some
times batter the structures to pieces,
and always the waters are alive with
man-eating sharks.
i, 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
time Of the earliest explorers. But she
was interested chiefly in gold and
silver; mere trees seemed beneath
notice So British and ether adventur-
ers who cut timber on the eastern coast
of Yucatan, the present British Hon.
duras, and the Mosquito country, far
Their south, were not molested at first
When the settlers we're seen to be
making a good thing of their mahogany
trade. the Spanish changed their policy
and began harassing them. A series of
wars and treaties between Spain and
Great Britain followed In 1898 the
Spanish made supreme effort to drive
what they considered the "squatters"
out of Belize.
But the settlers, with cannon mounted