The Duke Steps Out

H.R.H. the Duke of Windsor was a happy man last week. After months of hard work, he proudly announced that giant General Foods will lease from his colony the modern Grand Bahama fish-packing plant, give work to hundreds of the islands' unemployed.

It was all the Duke's idea. The 67,000 citizens of his island kingdom were getting along O.K. until the war knocked the spots out of the lush tourist business (main support of the population), marine parasites crippled the sponge trade, blue-grey flies ruined the citrus trees. One by one the islanders lost their jobs. There was depression. So the Duke set up the Economic Investigation Committee, set out after bigger & better industry for his Bahamas.

First he wrote King's English letters to all U.S. businessmen he thought could help. Then he promised his Duchess a permanent and got her to fly with him to the U.S. early this summer. The royal pair roamed through Washington and Manhattan, wound up in a super-swanky suite at the Waldorf. Up came smart, progressive General Foods Chairman Colby Mitchell Chester. They talked. When Foodman Chester left he beamed with the Duke's graciousness, was amazed at his business know-how. On a Monday morning three days later the Duke & Duchess limousined to General Foods' Park Avenue office, looked over the company's sparkling test kitchens, chatted with flabbergasted cooks and dietitians, made a deal with Mr. Chester.

The Grand Bahama plant had been controlled by blacklisted Capitalist Axel Wenner-Gren until February 1942, when the Duke took it away from him. Worth over $1,000,000, it has an up-to-the-minute quick-freeze plant and cannery, a fleet of power-driven fishing boats, is only 60 miles' shipping distance from Palm Beach. General Foods will start operations with 300 native workers in the plant, 1,000 more as supply fishermen. Main catch will be rock lobster (crawfish); later the company will go after pompano, grouper, snapper, other tasty tropical fish. If all goes well, the plant may be expanded, more natives put to work.

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