The Tribune

THE War Materials Committee was started after the fall of Dunkirk in June 1940. By the time the war had ended the tiny Bahamas — in addition to the metal collected and sent to England — had made the second largest shipment of food to Britain of the entire colonial empire.

BAHAMIANS were very loyal to Britain. They were anxious to help the war effort in some way, but did not know how.

Nightly in his column in The Tribune, Sir Etienne Dupuch made suggestions as to how Bahamians could contribute to the war effort.

But no matter how much he agitated in his column, Government House remained silent.

One day, Sir Etienne’s friend, Henry Manson, the English Director of the Electrical Department, called on him at his office.

He said that he and his friends had tried to get some action from Government House, but nothing happened.

He felt that Sir Etienne, as a member of the House of Assembly, and on various government boards, might have more of a chance with the governor, Sir Charles Dundas.

Sir Etienne went to Government House.

The following is how he described the scene:

“I found Sir Charles seated at his desk one morning just after the fall of Dunkirk in a very agitated state of mind. A pile of cigarette butts filled an ash tray and he was smoking furiously. It was clear that he had been stunned by the disaster that had crushed the Allied armies. His mind had been temporarily numbed. I put the metals proposal to him, but he turned it down flat, saying that there was no metal in the island, and, furthermore, there would be no ships to take it away.

“Then I outlined the food programme, which he also rejected absolutely and offered no reason for his opposition. ‘But, surely,’ I urged, ‘the British people need food.’

‘Mr Dupuch,’ he said, in his coldest aristocratic manner, ‘who are you to decide what the British people need?’ That ended the interview.”

A furious Sir Etienne went back to his office and phoned Mr Manson. The two met and decided to bypass the Governor and go straight to London.

Sir Etienne drafted a lengthy cable to Sir Charles Wright, Comptroller of Steel. Almost immediately a cable came back from London. Sir Etienne was given the green light.

“The news that I had gone over the head of the Governor to London spread round the town like wildfire,” he wrote.

That night he called a meeting on the ground floor of the House of Assembly and most of the town’s influential people were there.

“That night a committee was formed,” he wrote, “and it took the simple name of War Materials Committee. I was elected chairman and given the authority to select my own committee.”

“Never before or since,” wrote Sir Etienne, “has there been a more splendid group of men and women gathered together for a public cause. At no time in the history of the colony has the community been more united behind a movement. The enthusiasm was unbelievable. Anything we asked for was on the doorstep the following day. Women brought gold heirlooms that had been in their families for generations.”

“Sir Charles became concerned when he saw the mountain of metal that started mounting up on our metal dump.”

The dump was on Bay Street just east of Symonette Shipyards. Sir Roland Symonette had made the empty space available to the committee.

Sir Etienne wrote: “Sir Charles sent for me and warned me that Britain wouldn’t have a ship to send for this material and that I would have to take full responsibility for misleading the public. He gave me a cheque for £10 and promised another £10, which never came because, greatly to his annoyance, he was moved to Africa to make way for the Duke of Windsor as governor.

“Suffice it to say that this work became so important that Washington sent an observer to see how it was done. The Press of the United States, Canada and London gave us editorial space and throughout the war I dealt directly with members of the War Cabinet in London over the head of the Governor.

“When the time came for us to make a shipment of metal, Britain sent a ship to take it away. When I told the government that a ship was coming, the officials said that this was impossible because the local Comptroller of Shipping, a war time post, had not been informed…

“The Committee not only made large shipments of metal – all sorted, graded and cut to size so that it went straight to the smelters – but we operated a canning factory, preserved all our surplus products and made the second largest gift of food to Britain of the entire colonial empire. Only the big Rhodesias beat us.

“In addition, the RAF base in Nassau used our metals. When the war was over the Commanding Officer of the base wrote a letter saying they would have found it difficult to operate without the metals available at our dump. The American Coast Guard and the Allied Merchant Navy also used the dump.

“All the islands joined in the enterprise. We organised expeditions that cut into the dense forests in the Out Islands to uncover materials in factories that had been abandoned a half century or more earlier. Donald Lawrence and RJA Farrington took crews of workmen to the islands to uncover this material and bring it to Nassau. In addition to hundreds of volunteers, the committee provided employment for hundreds more at a time when there was unemployment in the colony.

“Later a group of people came to see me. They said that they were trying to interest the Admiralty in building ships in the islands, but had had no reply. Perhaps our committee, which had such a good reputation in London, might get some action. I wrote to the Lords of the Admiralty and directed them to the War Council in London as a reference. Immediately an answer came back – they were interested. They would like to have some trawlers built. Soon after this they sent a representative to me to make all the arrangements. I held a meeting and handed this man over to Symonette Shipyards. Two trawlers were built — and launched — but they were never used. The ‘impregnable’ island of Singapore fell just about this time and it was said that the engines to go into these vessels were among the material lost when the island was taken over by the Japanese.”

“The War Materials committee shut down everything but the food section when the war ended. We carried on making food shipments to Britain for a couple of years until the food depot in England was finally closed down.”