par Two Islands Remnant of French Colonial Empire
13 September 1935, Deming New Mexico
The French colony of St Pierre and Miquelon consist of two islands lying ten miles off the southern coast of Newfoundland. Together they are an area of less thatn 100 square miles and are the sole remnants of the great French colonial empire in North American, notes a correspondent in the Chicago Tribune.
At the beginning of the Eighteenth century France was in control of North America except for the English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Spanish settlements in Florida and in the region reaching south and west from Texas. When the French attempted to build a line of forts from Presqu’lsle, now Erie, Pa., to the navigable waters of the Ohio river in Pennsylvania, the English moved against them and started what is known In American history as the French and Indian war. The treaty which settled this disturbance stripped France of its American possessions, leaving it the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon as a fishing station. At that time there were three islands, Great Miquelon, Little Miquelon or Langlade and St Pierre, but since 1783 the Miquelons have been connected by a mud bank.
England has taken the islands three times since the end of the French and Indian war, but France has been in undisputed possession since 1814. Their usefulness as a fishing station has gradually diminished, but at one time they were in a fair way to become the world’s greatest smuggling station.
This was checked to a great extent when the British government placed a consular agent on the- islands.
