HOLLAND IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

foreign [Music] [Music] February 16 1942 a shell sweeps in from the sea war had come to the Western Hemisphere over the radio flashed to Solemn news Aruba had been filled its oil refineries had been attacked by an enemy submarine where was Aruba what was Aruba west of Curacao where was that the names of the Dutch West Indies meant little to most Americans we knew even less across the islands and territories themselves about their locations but their appearance or about their people yet today sympathetic citizens of Kansas and Vermont not only too well that for a time at least the flag of Holland flies over free Dutch soil only in the Caribbean Seas at our very door and today a few hist reminded Americans remember that in 1776 their own flag was first honored by a foreign power when the guns of the Dutch fought at Saint eustacious roared a salute to 13 young Stars and Stripes but only a handful of American tourists have actually visited the last remnants of the great Empire that Holland once created in the New World they came back from Curacao with stories of lovely Dutch buildings in a tropical setting of shopping trips in the narrow streets of a strangely Cosmopolitan City in the Indies they reported South America came halfway to meet North America the cultures of Northern Europe were mixed like a cocktail the rhythm of rumbas and samples [Music] their diary sounded like old-fashioned travel thoughts they visited ancient cemeteries that recall the host of romantic stories of men to whom the islands had offered a Haven from the violence of 16th century Europe even more ancient Memorials of a prehistoric time picture writings that outlive the very cultures that produce them and are now merely local Mysteries foreign had actually seen a three-toed sloth often said to be the laziest of God's creatures or they may have come upon an Indian settlement where the descendants of the fierce tribes that once ruled the Caribbean area still live in primitive style dressing as little as possible and depending on the breadfruit but food [Music] the tourists reported that Island children played in the gold mines now abandoned once the object of Fame scramblings for quick Fortune they saw ancient slave but still standing a century after the occupants were freed and had left the salt mines the rest are living from the sparkling sea the Dutch West Indies were climbing and Quentin but that was all the days before geopolitik had become a household word before the march of the fascist War Machine and forced our attention to mess Suriname for instance although a large part of its 50 000 square miles are covered with sparsely populated virgin forests supplies the very Pond structure of the Modern War Machine already in 1948 bauxite beds were the source of more than a half of All American aluminum aluminum today most important mineral of the nation's arming to win the technological battles of World War II Layman know that aluminum is the commonest mineral in the Earth's crust yet only from bauxite can it be extracted quickly and cheaply enough make it available in large quantities to the ever-hungry machines of the Armament plants in Washington thousands of miles away busy pencils calculate each load of the precious bauxite destined for American refining plans where The Rustic clay-like substance will be reduced to a gleaming metal of incredibly High tensile strength and astonishing lightness of weight but the first task is to get the bauxite out of the jungle for the mines at moengo are separated from the Sea by more than 100 miles of dense tropical Grove [Music] dark narrow rivers are the only means of communication with suriname's interior for Generations these Rivers carried only the strange rafts and canoes of a race of former slaves who had gone native and retired to a jungle life on gaining their freedom they went back to primitive gods in the simple ways of life these natives came to know every hidden Rock in the river's course they learned how to protect themselves from the deaths that lurked on its banks or was hidden in its murky Waters production American Engineers their knowledge proved indispensable as new and stranger craft had to be guided along the winding Waters of the kottaka river [Music] the ponderous bauxite boats feel their way through the Fantastic backgrounds of luxurian foliage today as these ships literally sail through the forest they carry American troops ever on the alert for danger but they're not watching for jungle cats or boa constrictors the real Menace now that this spectacular ship Lane has become a vital artery of War Supply it's sabotaged and the precious bauxite must be kept on the move down to the harbor of paramariable and out across the Caribbean to play its important role in theaters of War long round the world strange and complex is the modern world that industrial man has spun out of the materials of nature today when famine threatens Continental Europe even the guano deposits of an exotic island in the Caribbean are related to the outcome of the war for years most of the phosphate of lime found in Curacao went to Germany it was spread on German fields to stimulate the growth of German crops although the phosphate is still gathered and shipped from Newport the ships Laden with fertilizer are bound for Allied ports and in the nutrition strategy of World War II their cargos can be reckoned as assets against the axis [Music] but Curacao has another Harbor which is contributing even more directly to the victory of the democratic armies willemstadt since World War one has become one of the busiest ports of the Western Hemisphere in peacetime ships of dozens of Nations could be found taking advantage of its fine Harbor installations and its shipyards capable of carrying out extensive repairs for willemstadt is not only the capital of the territory but also the gate to the oil resources of the Caribbean region Curacao and the neighboring island of Aruba are important today because of oil although not a single gusher has ever existed on the islands oil provides a livelihood for their people although no well has ever been sunk into the Island's volcanic base the key to the riddle is a group of the largest oil refineries in the world British stats Mexican and American companies own the huge distilling and cracking plants that manufacture gasoline fuel oil gas oil and diesel oil from the crude petroleum of the rich but landlocked oil fields of Venezuela only 50 miles away from the wells of Lake Maracaibo Colombia and Trinidad the Black Gold comes into cortisol and Aruba in a mosquito Fleet of small tankers in sea-going tankers The Finnish petroleum products leave the islands for unannounced ports in eastern North America or that's West Indian oil is fueling the warships and the convoys the tanks and the combat cars of the United Nations in fighting planes and in bombers it is helping to knock the fascist Menace out of the Skies of the world the inhabitants of the islands have long since adjusted their lives to the constant coming and going of the oil traffic problems in willemstock were always settled in favor of the tanker captains and today there is certainly no challenge to the right-of-way of these Brave sailors and so it's no accident that the first shot in the Western Hemisphere was fired at the Ducks of an American Oil Company in Aruba what more important Target could enemy strategists have chosen when a key center of the great economic machine that is destined to Vanquish them what more fitting symbol of the unity of the United Nations but the islands were not found unprepared the small Dutch Garrison has been trained for such an emergency the Islanders had quickly learned the techniques of War Or the critical power when they would be forced to defend their home and their freedom later they were joined by detachments of English and American troops fully equipped with elaborate armaments every precaution was taken to guarantee the security of the Island's essential Industries enemy aliens and potential saboteurs were quickly rounded up and put in the concentration camp on the neighboring island of Bonaire today the coasts of the Dutch West Indies are studded with Firepower to repel an invader where the Dutch and American forces have turned the islands into a veritable Hornet's net the skies and the Sea are under constant scrutiny for the signs of an approaching enemy [Music] but the first line of defense is the harbors and ship channels destroyers and gun boats Patrol them night and day for the dead West Indies are vital to the United Nations as shipping centers at all costs the ships their Crews and cargos must be able to come and go in the greatest possible safety in these crucial days The Guns of film starts and Paramount are ever on the alert for their guiding the aluminum and oil that are going to maintain the armies of Freedom wherever the battles of this Great War are pitched Little Wonder that American soldiers are proud of helping to man these guns and of helping to keep the flag of a free people waving in honor thank you foreign [Music]