AN ISLAND ROMANCE

Shannon News, 8 June 1928, Page 1

AN ISLAND ROMANCE

THE CLUNIES-EOSS CENTENARY.

An interesting centenary took place in the far-away Indian Ocean on December 20 last, when the Clunics-Bosa family, an ancestor of whom came from the Shetland Islands, celebrated the hundredth anniversary of their possession of the Keeling-Coeos Islands (says a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian). The history of their ownership and settlement is a romantic story. The present owner of the Cocos Islands is Mr. John Sydney Cluniesißoss, and he is the grandson of John CluniesRoss, an adventurous seafaring man who landed on the islands in 1825 with a companion, Alexander Hare, ol London, and a company of 165 Malays, Hindus, and Chinese. At this time the group, which ia composed of about twenty tropical coral islands halfway between Colombo and Australia, was still uninhabited, and the present population, numbering about 700, are descendants of these original settlers. After a little time Clunies-Ross and Hare quarrelled as to the way in which life on the islands should bo conducted, and Hare, who wished" to live the life of an Oriental ruler, with a harem and numerous slaves, finally left for Singapore. . Clunies-Eoss then claimed the group for himself, and ruled there for 87. years. He was succeeded by hia son John who married a Malay woman of royal Sum descent, and had a family of nine. The island chief sent his six sons to be educated in ! Scotland, but in ,1862 the eM«rt 4 George, then aged 20, returned to the I Cocos Islands to help in re-establish-ing, after a great cyclone, the coconut plantations and the production oi' copra, which is still the chief industry of the group. The present prosperity of this island community is chiefly due to the energy and foresight of these two rulers* They imported machinery and tools, planted palms, and exoprted copra and oil, thus establishing a flourishing industry During the reign of John George CluniesKoss the British Government, at his * request, sent a representative • out to annex the islands. This official was so struck with their administration that he made no alteration in the Government, but appointed Clunies-Eoss as Governor. Later the group was attached to the Straits Settlements for a time, but continued under the rule of the Clunjes-Ross family, and in 1886 they were granted possession of tie Oocos Islands for ever by Queen Victoria. An example of the prosperity of the islanders is the fact that George Clunies-Ross, father of the ruler, who died at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, in 1910, left £200,000 to his wife and nine children. There is on the Cocos Islands a cable station, erected in 1901, and the 'staff.are the only white people, exeept two, on the group. Mrs. John Sydney Clumes-Ross, wife of the present chief, is the only white woman there, and he is the first of the island rulers •;o marry a white woman. - The islands are very seldom visited by travellers, being quite off the ordinary* tourist track, but they gained * fame during the war when the German raider Em'den was destroyed off the islands by the Australian cruiser , ! LM.A.S. Sydney. The islanders are happy and heajthy; rhere are no tax . collectors and no police. Drunkenness is virtually, unknown as the manufacture of alcoholic drink is forbidden. Whisky can be obtained at Government House, but anyone who drinks to excess is severely punished. / .... ■