Evening star., 1943-10-24
100000 Fertile Haitian Acres
Promise 10000 Tons of Rubber
By M0ran ". ChHdS.
BY Marquis ". CMids.

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti-Out of
the vast upheaval of the war and the
search for vital raw materials has come
an experiment that has begun to alter
the simple pattern of existence III this
island republic One hundred thousand
acres of Haiti'S fertile earth are being
planted in cryptostegia grandifiora,
plant of the milkwced family from
which Ultimately the prospect is for
10000 tons Of raw rubber to replace the
supply lost when the Japs conquered
the East Indies
II is all, of course. matter OF scale.
Before the war Haiti exported about
s600000o in produce of various sorts.
That was the sum total of HaltiS money
economy, supporting that small margin
of the population that manages to live
above the Self-SuStaining level of the
mass Of the peasants. Now in less than
three years $50 100000 out Of the United
States Treasury are being spent here.
It is big rock to drop IN a small pool
and the reperCussions are likely to be
felt far beyond the shores of this curious
and fascinating country.
The goal of rubber is so urgent that
the Americans. who are directing the
cryrtoStegia project have little time to
think about the future beyond the end
of the present crisis. They know that
every scrap Of raw rubber that can be
produced anywhere Will be necessary to
keep the wheels of American industry
turning in the lean period that is just
ahead.
100 Tens This Year.
Tapping Of the cryptostcgia plants for
the milky white lateX has Just begun in
those delda that are farthcst advanced.
The amount of rubber out OF Haiti this
year VIII be 100 tonS-ucgUglble except
that no amount of rubber can be called
negligible IN these days OF security. Not
until January !, l945, will production be
al The fun rate Of 10000 tons
While Americans and HaItians are
concentrated on this bic Job the
Haitians are thinking at the same time
of the future. just the other day Wash
ington announced that work on the
Central American highway an emer-
eenCv measure started at the time that
submarines were taking a heavy toll
of inter-American shipping would be
abandoned; the submarine menace was
no longer acute The American news
papermen who stopped here on tour
Of the Caribbean and South American
rubber areas were asked what that
meant
rs Your interest in US only for the
duration Of the war when YOU need
u.s. tie Haitlans ask. will YOU leave
as soon as the need is over? Is that
what we must look forward to?"
Such must be the doubts in the minds
Of americans everywhere. Ameri-
can money has given tremendous I'M
petus to the economies of a number of
countries south Of the American border
Airf1elds, highways. troop centers. new
industrial plants, all have come into
being under the threat, which the Axis
leveled at this hemisphere so short
time ago; so recent and yet the memory
Of 1t is already fading
Threat to Security.
What happened here in Haiti is an
illustration in little Of what happened
throughout the Americans. In 1887 and
'38 The Germans came very close to
putting over carefully worked out
piap, which would have meant tight
German control over tine finances of
the country. Clever. hard-workmg Ger
mans had iuoratiated themselves with
the HaItIans. They were carrying out
plan that would have seriously threat
encd North American security.
b. quick action the State Department.
working through the EXport-Import
Bank, thNarted the German scheme. A
loan was made to Haiti and in COL
laboration with the Haitian government
the j. G. White Engineering Co. was
commissioned to build highways and
bridges. This was frankly a stop-gap
program to ward off Nazi control of
friendly country occupying a highly
strategic island