"BOSTON TEA PARTY”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 910, 1 March 1930, Page 27

"BOSTON TEA PARTY”

INCIDENT WHICH STARTED WAR Most people have heard of the famous “Boston Tea Party," when a little group of American citizens, disguised as Red Indians, gave a. war whoop, descended on British merchant ships lying quietly at the quayside, and breaking open a number of tea-chests, poured the tea into the waters of the harbour. Few of us, however, are aware of the fact that one of the London firms shipping this tea to America away back in the eighteenth century is still in existence, and doing a flourishing business under the shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The firm provides an amazing link of the present with the past, and of English history with American. It must be very romantic for the directors and clerks and warehousemen, if

they are blessed with imagination, to think as they enter their business house that they are successors to the men who made out the bills of lading and arranged for the shipments of the tea which led to the loss of the most flourishing British colonies and to the birth of a great nation. The famous “Tea Party” took place within ten days of Christmas, 156 years ago, and it was reaily the opening incident of the War of Independence, which converted the British colonies founded by the Pilgrim Fathers and others into the United States of America, which now dominates the whole of the New World. The day of the “Tea Party” was Thursday, December 16, 1773, and the story of what happened may be told once again. King George 111. and his Government claimed the right to tax the American colonists, but the Americans, separated from the Mother Country and English current ideas by thousands of miles and weeks of tedious sea voyage, resented the taxation bitterly. Especially did they resent the tax on tea.

In the autumn of that memorable year a number of English vessels set out under the auspices of the East India Company, for American ports, laden with tea. Three of the ships, whose cargoes included the tea-chests of the London firm alluded to above, docked at Boston, in Massachusetts The citizens were determined that this tea should neither be used in their colony, nor should it be landed on American soil. It must be taken back in the ships to England, or whatever the captains liked, so long as they did not leave it in Massachusetts In Dimly-Lighted Church It appeared that the owner of one of the ships had already agreed under pressure to take his vessel, with the tea. back to London within 20 days of its arrival, and when he did not do this a committee of citizens summoned him to appear before them and asked why he had not fulfilled his agreement. He declared that it was out of his power, for he could not get the necessary pass to sail. “Well,” said the citizens, "the ship

must go; the people of Boston and the neighbouring towns absolutely require and expect it.” They told him to apply to the Governor for a pass. The citizens seem to have had a real desire to leave the tea uninjured, pra vided it could be sent hack to London. but when the English authorities refused to grant a pass, so that the ship could leave Boston, the citizens were furious and indignant. Stem men who had waited for the decision of the Governor in a dimlylighted church, now realised that the die was cast. “Let us consider the issue before we advance to those measures which must bring on the most trying and terrible struggle this country ever saw,” said one, who was later to become a famous statesman. “Now that the hand is to the plough,” said another, “there must be no look ing back.” The whole assembly voted unanimously 4 that the tea must not be landed. It was a weird scene; the dimly lighted church, the passionate speeches and fierce determination, so different from what was usually heard within those sacred wall*.

Scarcely had the decision been taken than a great shout was heard outside in the porch of, the church. It was a war w-hoop, given by a body of some forty or fifty men, disguised as Red Indians and armed with tomahawks. They' rushed down to the quay, took possession of the three tea ships-, and in about three hours they had broken open 340 chests and poured the tea into the harbour. It was not a wild riot in the ordinary sense, for everything was done decently and in order, and no member of the crews suffered violence. The work done, the “Indians” returned to their homes, the crowd dispersed, and everything was quiet in Boston. But when daylight dawned it was seen that the harbour was black with floating tea, and everyone knew that the first blow had been struck in what might lead to a great war between the colonists and the Mother Country. Such was the famous “Boston Tea Party,” the consequences of which are seen in the mighty country today.