Race Riot

A strange tale of 14 men in a boat came out of the British-owned Bahamas last week. On the beach near Mayari, Cuba, startled fishermen looked up from their work to see a motor launch, propelled by a sail pieced out of dirty shirts and trousers, ground itself in the shallow-water. Out of the rudderless boat tumbled five Americans, nine British West Indian Negroes. Wolfing food and water, the first they had seen in four blistering clays, the tattered survivors gasped out a story of riot, rebellion on Great Inagua,* southernmost of the Bahamas, 50 miles from the Cuban coast.

Fortnight ago. ran the mumbled story of one of the Negroes--Dr. Dudley Arthur Fields, representative of the Governor-General of the Bahamas in Great Inagua-- he sent out an order for arrest of a native accused of molesting a young boy in

Mathew Town, largest island village. Armed natives blamed Josiah Erickson of Swampscott, Mass., co-owner of Inagua's $500,000 salt factory, for the issuance of the order. They stormed the Erickson West Indies store, killed one employe, then roamed the island searching for other "Yankees." The enraged natives fired the store, radio station, salt buildings, the Commissioner's residence, the warehouse. Erickson, four other American residents, Commissioner Fields, eight Negroes grabbed rifles, tear-gas guns, cartridges, shot their way clear to the launch.

"We saw the natives set fire to the store, radio station, warehouse, and as we put out we could see several houses burning," said Physician-Commissioner Fields. "We "hoped to find a vessel at sea which would take us to Nassau. However, after cruising several hours we ran out of fuel, and our motor broke down. We drifted for four days at sea without food or water."

But their experiences did not end on the Cuban beach. Down to the water's edge came Cuban rural policemen, hastily summoned by the fishermen. One look at the small arsenal in the boat, rifles, pistols, gas bombs, rounds of ammunition, and the suspicious local police rushed the refugees off to jail, suspected them of being a revolutionary expedition to Cuba's shores. This week Cuban authorities released them, arranged to ship them back to Great Inagua.

Back in Great Inagua, Government officials and Bahama constabulary arrived from Nassau, 400 miles to the north. They verified reports of the riot, reported that the natives had settled back "to their accustomed routine."

*President Roosevelt used the island as a fishing base on his Caribbean trip last year (TIME, April 6, 1936).

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