The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1934-11-09
Quoting Virgil

chanted isle, with its eternal
summer, this beauty spot OF
which Virgil would surely have
said: 20 fortunatos minimum,
sua 81 bona norint, HaitiauoS!"
Very happily the Haitiens, II
they only knew their good for
tune) has something else be-
sides Haitien rhum, American
debts, American custom house
officers and Americans IN
charge of the banks and trea.
sury (for which fact we should
really feel ashameO not Of the
Americans, mind you, but that
for a few paltry millions, our
country tits of thee, our land
of liberty, should have to leave
a sheriff in charge, to collect
the debt.
If, to be consistent, we would
do the same with other nations
who owe us, much more than
IL millions, we would have to
send our officers to the banks
and custom houses Of many
European nations, in order to
get our money. Since Haiti Is
so close to our country and the
Panama Canal we had to send
out Marines and fiscal agents
and what not, because we knew
this mite among nations, could
not properly defend itself.
However, that is practically
past now. And tGnt-n1ieur, as
the intellectual Haitien says
the Marines haze gone.
Not many days ago had the
pleasure to meet the Foreign
Minister of this republic, Leon
Lalou, who not only is one Of
this country's great poets, but
who has written many novels
and essays, many Of which have
been published in Paris and in
Haiti.
Lots of Legends
AS for the strange stories
that haze been circulated re-
garding this country's Uoodoo
and other mystic practices,
nothing, to my mind, is more
difficult than to destroy the
legends that haze been a0rttten
about q people BY adventure"
some and tortNne-1nd-SenSGtion"
seeking Journalists and authors:
A story appeared in a national
magazine BY an er-MGrite 10ho
had been chief of police and
whose story, dished up for
American consumption, 1OGS not
only erroneous but totally fam
t1Stic.
Sergeant Wirkus, self
crowned King Of the lovely isle
of Gonaive Whose blush out
line I can see from the veranda
of my hotel here) has added
more oil to the fuel and there
have been many others, who in
writing about Haitien Voudou,
which incidentally, they have
never seen, attribute certain
sexual orgies and massacres that
would even put Salambo in the
shade. These stories are false
and the sooner the American
press does something to efface
these erroneous impressions, all
products of the mercenary inn
aginations of these Would-be
authors and journalists, the
sooner the American people will
understand these interesting peo-
pies, for whom one should not
have anything but admiration
and respect.
For after all, these people,
descendants of slaves brought
here by INSCRIPTIONS traders,
when in 1917, Las Cases, to re-
populate the island, after the
massacre and defamation Of the
indigents, the Arawak Indians,
obtained the consent Of the
Spanish crown to bring African
negroes to HispOniOla, thus in
itiating an organized Negro
traffic from the Old to the New
World-these people then, first
guided by that extraordinary
genius, Toussaint Louverture,
formerly q slave, then q French
general and governor Of Ssnto
Domingo, and followed by Des.
salines, slso o Negro and Alex
andre Potion, o mestizO, both
generals in the French army,
have for more than 100 years
successfully fought for o free
Haiti.
Now, my dear sobel, never in
the history of mankind. as far
as I can gather from my lin
tied knowledge of the struggles
of people, ever since they have
been recorded, has a nation Of
slaves found leaders, among