LONELY EMPIRE OUTPOST
Confronted with a map of tho world and asked to place their finger without hesitation' on tho island of Tristan da CunHa, many people would bo hopelessly at a loss; This lonely Empire outpost, which lies, some 2000 milea to the west of Cape of Good Hope, practically never.figures in the news. Why anyone should'want to live in this inhospitable spot, for about only 12 square miles of the main island are capable of 'supporting a population, is a riddle; yet just over 100 souls do live there and eke out 'a precarious existence, and, what is more, they have emphatically' stated that. they do not want to be taken' away to more congenial climes. This island, or rather group of islands, for there are several, although only one iB inhabited, is named after its, Portuguese discoverer who sighted it somewhere about 1507, but it has long been a British, possession. Interest in it has recently been reawakened with, a view to solving the problems it presents.
These problems aTe set out in detail in "Tristan da Cunha," an illustrated book by Douglas M. Gane (Seorgo Allen and Unwin, Lj;d.). One of these problems is how to keep this lonely settlement in toiict with the outside world, even if it is only the regular call once a year of a British ship. The islanders seem to lead healthy and moral lives. Life is naturally very simplo, and apparently really hard only in- the winter, especially now as the wood supply seems to bo giving out. The author of this distinctly interesting volume would likb to see some of the children taken away so as to give them a chance in the world, but he ! pleads' for the retention of the islands by Britain, and for the; respecting of the inhabitants' wishes that they be allowed to stay wheie they are and [work out'their own problems without too much interference from outside. That, it would seem, they are hardly likely to get, although it suggested that they might be visited periodically by a seaplane! ; •
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1933, Page 17
Word Count
346LONELY EMPIRE OUTPOST Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1933, Page 17
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