Musty Policy

Pretty, olive-skinned Dorothy Holtz, 21, was a happy bride-to-be when she arrived at Vancouver Island late in August. From her home in Jamaica, she brought a tiered wedding cake and a long bridal gown. Her English fiance, John Michael Hewitt, 30, was a biology master at the exclusive Shawnigan Lake School for boys near Victoria. Hewitt, who formerly taught in Jamaica, had splurged his savings to furnish a cottage on the school grounds and buy a car. Dorothy had plans for a formal wedding, a big reception, and a happy life in the campus community.

In ten days the Hewitts were married, but it was all tragically unlike Dorothy's dreams. Two witnesses were the only guests. Alone in the cottage afterward, the couple nibbled at the big cake. Four days later, brokenhearted Dorothy packed her unworn wedding gown and other belongings and went back to Jamaica.

What had happened might never have been publicly known except for the fact that Dorothy's father, Noel Frederick Holtz, is the accountant-general of the Jamaican government. When his tearful daughter arrived home, Holtz roused his colleagues to protest to the Canadian government about her treatment in Canada. The Shawnigan authorities, said Holtz, had objected to a "colored woman"* on the school property and suggested that Dorothy should leave. Her husband protested about the school's "ancient, musty policy," but he let Dorothy go home alone because, he explained, he wanted to "face the situation out" at the school and make it possible for her to return later.

Father Holtz's outburst got quick results. The Jamaican House of Representatives unanimously passed a protest resolution. Victoria and Vancouver newspapers took up the case and began raking the school officials. Shawnigan's governors pleaded a misunderstanding; they decided to invite Dorothy and her father to come to British Columbia at the school's expense to smooth over the affair. Canada's retiring Ambassador to Japan, R. W. Mayhew, offered to let the Hewitts live in his home. A Victoria company cabled offering her fare to Victoria and a job.

As yet, Dorothy has not decided whether she will go back. ("She doesn't think I played the man," admits Hewitt.) But she is heartened by the sympathy shown by Canadians. "I wish," she said, "that I had some way of thanking them properly for all this kindness."

* Dorothy's father says she is one-eighth Negro, seven-eighths white.

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