The Real Caribbean

[Music] the Caribbean is an all-american scene watching the coasts of both continents it is separated from the Atlantic by a crescent of Island ramparts a natural shield against hostile forces without this is the Caribbean as the tourist season armed bordered gleaming beaches mining in Asia and silver sea comfortable steamers travel here floating palaces that call it port after port in an endless panorama of ever-changing beauty but to see the real Caribbean we have to turn back the pages of the past to the 16th century when mighty Spain ruled these lands and left behind many reminders of its culture in the architecture that dominates many parts of this area beginning in 1655 the British extended their rule over a large part of this island Empire the famous Jamaica the leeward islands and windward islands and Trinidad are the more important British colonies these lands have been a backyard battleground for four centuries of European Wars here Admiral Nelson's port and here the hats of the Harbor Police remain unchanged from the days that Nelson's sailors took over but these representatives of British law and order have much darker skins than had Nelson's sailors less than two percent of the population is white the mass of the people of descendants of Negro slaves hauled in from Africa to work the sugar plantations when Britain abolished the slave trade in 1834 the rich planters who had used slaves to work their sugar fields had to look elsewhere for a cheap labor supply in many cases they look to India importing large numbers of peasant families as so-called contract laborers who when their years of servitude were up had the choice of free transportation back to India or a small plot and here most of them took the land but even if the harsh differences of their caste system divided them into a sort of social layer cake here too and even if the upper castes became wealthy and powerful while the lower artists ate poor they were still far better off in the new world and they would have been in the old the French colonial empire is represented chiefly by Guadeloupe and Martinique the British Isle of Dominica lies between them as we approach one of the French islands we do not sense much difference from the British colonies in fact some of these colonies have changed hands between France and Britain several times but the policeman is typically French despite his dark skin a wide Boulevard with a sidewalk phase remind one of niece of Paris on the streets the well-dressed French women seem to flash that's certain Parisian chic the colored Belle's too dressed French but at the French of a hundred years ago the French of the Empress Josephine who was born right here in Martinique this Roman Catholic procession is typically French and so is this church the Dutch Caribbean possessions include the islands of Borneo pura sale and Aruba the Dutch flag was carried into these waters by staunch traders after the best areas had been gobbled up by others but just as in Europe they made much out of little and wherever foot was set very little Holland threw an old-fashioned eighteenth-century sort of hominin these traders colonized Baron's sterile Islands where even the drinking water has to be imported by boat yet they created here first a rich slave market and then one of the world's greatest oil centres the crude oil comes from Venezuela on the mainland and so does most of their food and even their water the United States is represented here chiefly by the Virgin Islands Puerto Rico and the Panama Canal Zone in 1917 the United States bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark after 250 years of Danish rule the dusky policeman looks American but much of the old Danish atmosphere remains the most vital stronghold of the United States and the Caribbean is the Panama Canal the heart of our defenses and both oceans this enables our Navy to defend not only all of North America but South America as well thanks to this phenomenal engineering feat we can lift even the largest steam ships across the backbone of the twin continents at their narrowest connection thus we practically double the value of our fighting ships more far-reaching measures to ensure healthful living conditions have been taken here than in most other Caribbean lands the wide difference between the weather - and the poor if we couldn't help seeing as we travel through the other lands are not entirely lacking here either the whites fared better as a rule in the colored people's yep this is not solely a matter of a color line the same big gap between man and man prevails also in Haiti a free black nation that liberated itself in the same wave of report that carried the people of France into their first Republic here - we see the great gulf between palace and cobble between 20 and poverty here is a gaudy imitation french palace and a mighty fortress - which never fired a shot they were both built to please the whims of a Negro Emperor who freed his people from the French yoke only to put them beneath his own after he was overthrown the sugar plantations formerly worked by slave labor were cut up into small independent coffee fingers so we see there are serious social problems to be solved in all these Caribbean countries education will help and is no and so is the tireless work of several mission bodies but living standards must be raised better housing is being provided for natives and White's alight in the Canal Zone and in various other Caribbean lands other governments of fostering similar improved housing conditions technical and office personnel have long lived in areas developed very much like any suburban town the natural resources of the Caribbean lands are ample to support their peoples Shover remains the principal export crop despite temporary dislocation of older markets and it is sure to take on even greater value as an industrial raw material in years to come even the United States doesn't raise enough sugar for its own people we found this out very quickly as soon as the war cut across some of our normal channels of trade all the world is hungry for the vegetable fat that came from copra dried coconut meat which the Caribbean islands have long furnished and this is an industry that can be cultivated by small independent farmers as a cash crop additional to the raising of their own food supplies another much wanted product is coffee with Japan's seizure of the rubber lands of the Far East came and immediately acute rubber shortage the Caribbean lands can and do raise rubber not only the well-known bananas which have long been basic exports but many other varieties of fresh fruits await only demand and shipping facilities cacao from which we get our cocoa and chocolate comes from the Caribbean and so do many of our spices our dark-skinned neighbors to the South are no helpless wards that have to be looked after they can take care of themselves very nicely as witnessed these sturdy fishermen they could feed themselves and house themselves without any contact at all with our northern world but they produce certain things that we do not in which we need and want so we trade them our surplus products for theirs in fair exchange we should both be better off to be sure some of their products we won't exactly care for like this marbie team oil from bark and pedaled in the streets by women who balance the heavy cans on their heads like expert jugglers while all these islands have certain things in common they also differ widely in other respects all sorts of things are sold at these markets even firewood and some islands were feuless scarce each island has its own special products and its own special problem exports are hauled away by ships of many nations the mother countries generally get a little the best of the trade in these islands over which their flags live in exchange for the raw materials that are taken from these islands manufactured goods and strangers may seem large quantities of food are brought from abroad largely from the United States one of the greatest of the Caribbean strategic prizes consists of the oil fields of Venezuela and the adjoining refineries on the Dutch island of Aruba to which the crude petroleum is brought from the mainland by fleets of tankers what a prize for an oil hungry enemy and here's a Nazi warship snooping around seeking out weak spots for future attack not long after Pearl Harbor Nazi submarine shell these refineries and the American forces that got at them powerful American Navy is ever on the watch and washing the Monroe Doctrine against the old world and implementing the good neighbor policy in the new a whole chain of American naval and air bases on territory largely leased from friendly nations greatly strengthens our defenses all glory guards the freedom of our southern seas you [Music]