Swans, Spooks and Boobies

Henry Kissinger excepted, White House aides do not normally rate elaborate receptions abroad. But when Presidential Counsellor Robert H. Finch reached Honduras last week on the fifth leg of a six-nation Latin American tour, he was received royally.

Because of Hurricane Laura, Finch's plane was diverted from Tegucigalpa, the capital, to San Pedro Sula. No matter. Honduran President RamOn Ernesto Cruz, accompanied by his entire Cabinet and several cases of vintage champagne, hurried to Honduras' second city to meet Finch there. During a two-hour layover, the reason for all the hospitality became clear. Finch and Cruz signed an agreement under which Washington will cede to Honduras two Caribbean islands that have been U.S. possessions for more than a century.

Great Swan and Little Swan, 97 miles off the Honduran coast, together cover scarcely three square miles. Little Swan is uninhabited: the larger island is used principally as an air-navigation and weather-reporting station. Its population consists of a U.S. Federal Aviation Agency technician, four weathermen and 16 civilians, most of them related in a four-generation link to the island's thrice-married elder. Captain Donald Glidden, 79, a Cayman Islander who settled on Swan in 1927. There are also innumerable booby birds, notable for their droppings, which for centuries have been used as fertilizer.

After Columbus. The Swans may have been visited in 1502 by Columbus, who was making his fourth voyage in search of that elusive passage to the East Indies. Later expeditions established Spain's claim to them. Because there is no water on the islands, they were usually bypassed. In 1856, however, the U.S. passed the Guano Islands Act, which enabled it to pre-empt any unclaimed islands on which bird droppings or guano abounded. Under that proviso, Washington claimed Great and Little Swan in 1863.

Great Swan became a weather station in 1914, but it was 1960 before the real Swan song began. A New York company called Gibraltar Steamship Corp.. which owned no steamships, set up shop on the island with a 50,000-watt transmitter. Gibraltar, of course, was a CIA cover, and Radio Swan was soon booming propaganda to Fidel Castro's Cuba, 350 miles away. It called Castro and his lieutenants "pigs with beards" and accused Brother Raul Castro of being "a queer with effeminate friends." In reply, Havana Radio called Swan "a cage of hysterical parrots."

Look to the Rainbow. Before the Bay of Pigs assault began in 1961, Radio Swan beamed coded messages like "Look well at the rainbow. The fish will rise very soon. Chico is in the house. Visit him." After the attack failed, Swan was gradually phased out of the spook business and used instead for weather reports and sending navigation signals. The U.S. eventually decided that the islands could be safely given away. For Honduras, which has claimed them since 1923, Swan has long been a symbol of Yankee imperialism. In 1961 a boatload of students sailed out to plant the Honduran flag on Great Swan. Invited ashore, they flew their flag, stayed for sandwiches and beer, and then sailed home.

The U.S. Senate is expected to ratify last week's agreement by next spring. After that Honduras will leave things as they are on Swan. The U.S. technicians will remain, as will Glidden and his family. But another potential --though minor--international flash point has been damped down. Raising his glass in a toast last week, President Cruz remarked that Washington had been wise to give up the Swans. If it had not, he hinted with a straight face, Honduras would have had to resort to force.

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