USVI Public Records

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at the end of next week, unless mining is resumed by that time and fresh sup- plies of fuel are obtained. The iron and steel works of the plant, ape already shut down. Unemployment on the re- gister of the labour exchanges, at the | end of April totailed 1,865,600 wita the | number working on short time, tofalling 1,077,009 these figures are exclusive of the 1,209,000 idle miners. Itis estimat- | ed that each day of the sinppage of coal mining,adds fifteer thousand people i the | une nployment tist. The idlenessot the niners is the chief cause of 1,160 ships being laid up in the 36 principal ports | of the United Kingdom. while the ef- fest w s furtner reflected in the Board | of Trade returns yesterday showing a | dacrease for Agril of nearly 90,000,000 | pounds in the value of imports and more | than 160 000,000 pounds in the value of | exports. I'ne Board of l'rade announc- | ed that the govt. has made arrangements | for the importation of coal from abroad | thinsure as lonz as the stoppage con- | tinues the maintenance of the services | essential to the life of the commupity. | Measures will be taken-it is said, to l have the imported coal to meet the vi- | tal needs of the people but privately | i nportad coal for noaessential puarposes | will be usad to diversion in the nation- | al interest. ; New York May 9th.—The suffening | up of the raw market on saies at an | advanced rate on Friday was tone sub- | jeet of mueh speculative commeont in the | trade on Saturday morning, the atti- | luie most geaerally assuned being one | of scepticism as to th: substantiality of | the imorovements. It was held that | there was no chanze in fundamental con- ditions such as -would warrant an ad | vance at this time. On the contrary. the | depressior previously and for long ex- isting in the 'market for raws having | been largely if not whoily caused by | the weakness and dullness of refined | A decline in the fermer would have | haen a natural comitant of rhe addition- al cuts made on Friday in their ba- | sis oprice by some of the refiners. However the raws market opened steady on Sa:urday and was further strength- ened by the confirmation in an offizial cable from Havana of additional sales by the sugar finance committee of some 80,000 bags approximately 10,000 tons of Cuba’s to the United Btates at 3975 C. and F. and of 50,000 tons for Europe, understood for France, at » price equivalent to 3.675 P B In the absence of an official statement a. to the ultimate disposition of the sugars sold to come here. it was the concensus of opinion in. the trade that they are to be refined on toll for ex- port. Holders of Porto Rico’s were sellers at 477¢C. 5 I F and tull daty sugars were offered at 3.50 c. C. I. F., refiners showed noc interest in them at the prices pamed. Developments in the coming week awaited with keen interest. 1. . CRULX A YIS Cadiz, May 11th. —Preparations for a combined attack against Morocan tribes- mean in the Tetuan and LaracHe sectors are being made by Spanish militarv offi- cials in Morocco, General Berenguer, the Spanish High Commissioner, declared to- day upon his arrival from Tetuan. Dominiea, 12th. —Sharp*shock of earth- quake experienced at 9.10 last night. VIRGIN ISLANDS IN THE DOL- : DRUMS S By KARL K. KITCHEN (The World Magazine, April 24th.) My first impylse, when 1 gota good look at St. Thomas, was to cable my ("ongressman to try to get hack part of the $25,000,000 we had paid for the Vir- ogin Islanls. For even at a glance it is apparent that these islands are not worth twenty-five millions of anything—except, perhaps Russian Rubles. However, I restrained myself—with an effort. Perhaps th:re might be hid- den charms. So I decided to investigate first and act after vard. It has been said that to know all is to forgive all. But although I now know why the Danes tried for fifty years to sell us these i;‘/la/nds. Icannnt forgive the Ameri- can officials who bought them. There is nothing to recommend them—not even a direet lin> of steamships to New York. ‘““Cruel words,”’ you say. But the truth has got to come out. [ not only gave St. Thomas, the best looking island of thalot (and a job lot these islands are, I’ll tell the world), the once over, bur I asked a score of people here how muech they thought the i_lands were reaily wort . I got almost as many estimates ~ranging from 30 cents to sl4 American money. Ah (I ean hear you saying), you forget that St. Thomas has a fine havbor, that it is an important coaling station and that it ‘is an important naval base to guard the Panama Canal. In answer I reply: Twenty-five mil- liod dollars 1s a lot of money. Also, the American naval officers who are station- ed at Charlotte Amalie, the capital of St. Thomas, don’t think much of the is- lands as a naval base. - As one of them said to me: “'lf we didn’t have Porte Rico, and if Germany had won the war, St. Thomas might be valuable as a naval base.”” From which ? it will be seen that if there was once something votten in Denmark, there must have been something worse in Washington. . However, as Denmark has the twenty- five million iron men there is no use in- dulging in vain regrets—which, after all, means only alively appr=ciatior of ne- giected opportunities. Sauaffice it to’ say that if St. Thomas isn’t valuable for any- thing else. Certain it is that no one in his right mind would come to Charlotte Amalie on purpose. And I know that -any one who finds himself here by acci- dent, as I did, makes every effort to leave at the earliest possible mement. Now, it must be admitted that the landlocked harbor at Chariotte Amalie is attractive enough, and the town itseif doesn’t look half bad from one’s ship. . Fg# instance, there is a crumbling old ruin on one of the nearby hills whieh is said to have been a pirate’s stronghold. A very prominent pirate of earlier days’is reported to have hanged l'imself here- a report which I can readily believe, if he had to spend any great length oi time in” the vicinity. And there is an old Danish fort near the landing stage v'hich |ks -like a piece of Danish pastry. But unless the prestigesof the past meansa great deal in one’s young life, the little island is certain to bke a terrible disappoint- ment. Charlotte Amalie is simply an African village, peopled by a lot of blacks who were much happier under Danish rule than they are under the American flag. For while we have done -wonders as far as improving the health fjof the natives is concerned, we have not made them hap-- pier by forcing them to drink bay rum instead of the good nld sugar-cane vari- ety.It must not be gathered from this that St. Thomas is dry, despite the fact that Prohibition has been in force, for many moaths. In fact, I found Charlotte Amalie, where liquor selling is supposed to ne prohibited, wetter than most places in the West Indies where its sale is le- gally encouraged. But although there is plenty of whiskey on sale at $5 a bottle, that price is too steep ior most of the natives. 1 was assured that our marines and sailors patronize the bootleggers—- they Jon’t seem to have been converted to temperance by the passage of an amendinent or even by the brave words of Daniels. The blacks have to stick to home brews and bay rum. Bay rum is one of the prineipal pro- ducts of St Thomas. It has a high per- centage of alcohol, but it smells better than it tastes. However, it possesses a real kick, and a little grenadine makes it palatable if nothiog more. Isampled a swig of it myselt, so I can testify to the fact that it is not necessarily fatal. Our naval force, being paid regularly in the best mouney in the world, does not have to use bay rum, except after shav- ing. A big consignment of Sco‘ch was recently seized by the authorities, and for some mysterious reason it is being disposed of at prices ridiculously low from a New Yorker’s standpoint. I bought a bottle us five star Haig & Haig for five bones, andI was told tne only draw back to its sale was that the boot- leggers didn’t have enough badges to go arcund to prevent them from soliciting each other. (70 be concluied.)