The Duke Gets a Sample

One of the world's stubbornest problems had to be faced, in sample form, last week by the once debonair Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor. He had given up the throne of Britain, and as Governor of the tiny Bahamas he might have been expected to escape grave political difficulties. At the beginning of the week, indeed, he was not even in the Bahamas. He was in the U.S. preparing to celebrate the fifth anniversary of his marriage to his chic Duchess, and he had just lunched at the White House with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But, with the persistence of a bad conscience, the problem pursued him to his Washington ease, and presently the Duke had left his Duchess and was flying back to the Bahamas.

What had happened was that some 2,500 Bahamian natives had rioted down Nassau's swank Bay Street, smashing shop windows, helping themselves to expensive liquors, French perfumes, fine English fabrics. Said one excited spectator: "It was just like Pearl Harbor--it came so suddenly." Panicky merchants lowered their hurricane shutters and the British garrison police bore down on the mob. There was wild street fighting. Three of the rioters were killed, 40 arrested. The mob gradually retreated, with its stolen liquor, to native Grant's Town. But peace was not restored until the Duke returned and promised that something would be done about his problem:

What had started the riot was a wage differential, on a U.S. defense job, between native, colored Bahamians (81-c- a day) and imported, white Americans ($1.00 an hour). Promised the Duke: he would return to Washington and take up the matter with the proper Anglo-American authorities, with "a strong feeling that I will not return empty-handed."

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