Australia -- Description and travel; New Zealand -- Description and travel; Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972
The Prince replying, referred to Nelson's having refitted his ships in
this island before the Trafalgar campaign. He once again testified that
his own travels had been a wonderful experience and that he hoped to
have many opportunities of repeating and extending them in the future.
A pretty function followed on the breezy cricket ground, where a
surprisingly large gathering of white school-children, besides masses of
coloured mites, cheered the Prince enthusiastically. A state luncheon
was afterwards given by the Governor, followed by a popular reception in
Government House Grounds. The _Renown_ then sailed for the Bermudas, and
the Royal visit to the West Indies, during which the Prince's cheery
presence had produced the happiest impression, was over. The pleasure of
the Europeans at seeing him in their isolated corner of the globe was
almost pathetic. For those of West Indian blood the occasion was also a
memorable one. It certainly revived feelings of solidarity with Great
Britain which have sometimes been strained by that preaching of
race-prejudice from which no people situated as these are can ever be
completely exempt, be the white administration never so tactful.
Never, perhaps, has there been greater occasion for tact, as well as
strength and sympathy, in the political guidance of the Islands than
exists to-day. At the moment the West Indians are exceedingly prosperous
on the whole, owing to the phenomenal war-prices their sugar, cotton and
other produce have been fetching in the markets of the world. But the
quarter of century or so of lean years that preceded the last half-dozen
fat ones, have limited their outlook and retarded their development in
all directions. They have become isolated. They lie between two worlds,
with a tendency to take their ideas from their neighbour the United
States rather than from the distant Mother Country or from Canada.
The only public information of any interest reaching them by cable of
happenings throughout the world is supplied through New York. American
capital is displacing British for the development of their mineral and
other resources. Their agricultural produce tends more and more to find
its way to the United States. Their visitors from Great Britain and the
Dominions are few compared with those arriving from America; yet that
this state of things can be changed is proved by the partial revival in
relations with the British Empire that has followed the conclusion of
the recent admirable West-Indian-Canadian Agreement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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