Word: sark
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After delivering her complaint to the island's parliament, the Dame of Sark, who is responsible only to Queen Elizabeth II, announced that she planned to surrender the sovereignty of her 3-mile-long-by-H-mile-wide island to neighboring Guernsey, eight miles farther out in the English Channel. Her 575 subjects were aghast. "The Dame has put us in a small boat and pushed us down the river," groused Philip Perree, a hotelkeeper. "We have no wish to be ruled by the bureaucrats of Guernsey...
Sarkees fear that union with Guernsey would mean a loss of their ancient privileges. On Sark there is no personal income tax. Instead, after consulting, a dozen of the island's leading citizens set a "poor tax," based on how prosperous a resident appears. "We more or less guess," says William Baker, head of the island's parliament, which is called the Court of Chief Pleas. "We know approximately how much money everyone has and decide how much he can afford...
...less well-off pay a few shillings a year, while Millionaire Leonard Mat-chan, the wealthiest Sarkee, forks over only about ?125 annually. In return, residents are guaranteed serenity: Sark has no cars, no newspapers, no police save for two honorary constables, and no hospital. In recent years, however, Dame Sibyl's subjects have been asserting an unwonted degree of independence...
Died. Sir Ambrose Sherwill, 78, longtime bailiff (civil head) of the Channel island of Guernsey, which, with the isles of Jersey, Sark and Alderney, was the only bit of Britain occupied by the Nazis during World War II; in Guernsey. Guernsey was "taken" in 1940 by the crews of four transport planes. But Sherwill and the Guernsey folk made life miserable for the Germans, helping P.O.W.s to escape, and reporting every Nazi move to London...
...trail has led to the package store. Liggett & Myers last year took over the U.S. importer of J & B Scotch whisky. American Tobacco bought nearly all of Chicago's James B. Beam Distilling Co. last fall, and will soon purchase control of the Buckingham Corp., importer of Cutty Sark Scotch. When its turn came, P. Lorillard Co. decided to try a little tippling...