HELIGOLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1922, Page 4

HELIGOLAND.

IM PORTANT FACTOR ,IN WORLD ’ wa'r.

BEING RAISED UNDER ARMISTICE -TERMS.

(‘:New York .Herald-.,”)

Heligoland—flic ‘.‘Gibraltar of the North Sea,’’ as it came,to be kno.wn' during the days of William Holienzollern’s- rising ambitions —is settling back again ; from an almost indescribable, naval stronghold to a peaceful but remarkably picturesque ’.little .island, swept constantly by -frigid .winds, a harbour for quaint .fishing ,smocks and a rocky roosting^place-for sea .gulls. (Disarmament.there is (being conduct-, ed with .the help of dynamite and steam-operated cranes. •Fortifications .that .tpok the. Germans.thirty years to build, at a cost of something like 2,000,000,000.d011ar5, are : being ripped out and dumped into the sea, as one of the penalties the Prussians had to pay for starting the war. Heligoland to-day, after the dismantling of the fortifications has been in progress for more than two years, is more peaceful than it ever has been within the memory of the present generation. It will require five years more before the job of razing the things the Kaiser built will be completed and tlie rubbish scraped up, but Heligoland now is out of commission as a highly effective naval base.

Heligoland, in the future, will be international, an island whose history is so varied that it really is entitled to such a distinction. The demolition of its fortifications and its internationalisation have come about as part of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. GREAT SUBMARINE BASE. The island of Heligoland figured notably during the World War as one of the German naval strongholds, equal- : ly as safe a harbour for the Kaiser’s ships as the Kiel Canal. Within its breakwaters the German fleet could anchor safo in the protection of the heavy guns of the land fortifications; ns a base for submarines and destroyers the location was ideal. At least one notable naval battle was fought within sight of the island and the waters adjacent were the scene of countless skirmishes. It was almost within the range of Heligoland that Admiral Beatty, won considerable distinction in an engagement with the Germans during the early part of the war.

It was a grim fact that almost exactly twenty-four years before to the day—it was in August—the British Government, for considerations' that wore of relatively small importance, bad turned Heligoland over to the Germans with a ceremony in which the Kaiser participated in the presence of bis battle fleet. That act, which was political in all its aspects and which.at flic time' aroused the ire of many »i the militarists in England, now is ■

cepted as one of the most gigantic blunders British diplomacy ever committed.

There is not much to see at Heligoland. The surface area does not exceed threequarters of one square mile. From one end of Heligoland to the other it is exactly a mile. It is a slim sort of island, which, at its widest point, does not exceed 500 yards. STRATEGIC VALUE. But it does not take much study of the map even by a novice to realise the importance of the island in a naval way. Its strategic value lies in the fact that it covers the approaches to the Elbe and the Kiel Canal. It is thirty miles from the mainland, the const of Schleswig-Holstein. Incidentally, the Germans, with their highpower guns, so arranged it that the firing ares of the fortifications of the mainland and of Heligoland overlapped, a fact that added greatly to the strength of the position. It was the Kaiser, for years or more ago, who figured out the naval value of the island, which, for years and years had been regarded as of comparatively little importance. The British or a large part of them at least, were glad to get rid of the place. Economically it was a bad investment. NATIONAL COLOURS. Even in the days of British ownership, which began in 1807, during the Napoleonic wars, Heligoland had its own national colours—green, red and white. How these were determined upon is aptly told in four rhyming lines that read:

“Green is the land, Red is the rock, White is the sand — These are the colours of Heligoland.” Virtually no other hue could be seen on the island, except in the autumn, when the loaves were turning gold. The residents of the island—there never were more than 2500 at one time—painted their houses white and trimmed them with the foliage that developed the deep green so customary in «.uat latitude.

As the poem recites, the rock which j is Heligoland is of deep red, rising abruptly out of the ocean to ji height approximately 200 feet and spread out like a table, except jit one epd of the island, whore .there is a gentle slope to a wonderful sandy beach. There is little variation in the height of the rock, except at ,one spot, where there is a mound not more than fifty feet abo.v.e the rest of the surface, but whch is honoured by the erection of a tiny chapel. Just how they came to name it Heligoland nobody seems to know exactly, hut the most likely of all the explanations is .that there once lived on 'the island a monarch named King Hoi go, along about the sixth century. Qthers think the island got its name from “Holy Island,” from its association .with the worship of the Frisian inhabitants. FAULT HISTORY. Tattle is known about, the civil history of Heligoland in the earlv days, except that in the fourteenth century tho Hanes went there and built some fork and castles. Hut the island jvas quite independent of Denmark and there is evidence that when some of the early rulers needed spending they borrowed it in the neighbourhood, usually from the province of SchleswigHolstein, placing their island as a pledge for repayment. But th.e title always went back when the debt was paid, and it is recorded that .early in the eighteenth century the island became the property of Denmark. It was September 4, 1807, when Vice-

Admiral Russell of the British Navy, sailing along with . eight .ships, of- war, captured the island in the name of his Majesty King,George. (The Napoleonic Wars were on and the British wanted.the inland as a naval base. It was intended to turn the property back to Denmark .when the need for it no lopger .existed, .but ,this .never was (done.

There was .nothing particularly spectacular about the capture of. the, island ,by the [British. The Danish garrison consisted of ,t.wenty r( five .gunners and : the militia.complete..amounted to 180, men- jThere were, coast defences of t\yo or tliroe cannon mounted on tl,ie rocks.. HANDED. OVER TO GERMANY. ,

In,.the .Infer years,.of British control, , the Germans in Sohleswig-Holstej n started an agitation ,that the island properly, by all natural arguments, ibelonged jto . that province. The. inhabitants made German their official lan-, although among themselves they, had an .individual tongue. At any, ,rate.the islanders did not seem .to mind; wfiat country They belonged to, apd the agitation went,far enough so that (Germany negotiated a ,tr,ade for -the property, which .was consummated 911 ■A.ugust 4,i1890, the royal assent, coming exactly twenty-four years to the day .before the British declaration of war against tfie German Empre. The actual transfer of the island,took place, five days later. (Kaiser Wilhelm had (lie plans all, ready for tfie fortification of the island., Such simple construction as the British had there he had. completely torn away, substituting his own in every detail. The batteries were the finest the Ger-, mans ever built. The rifles were long, range and the howitzers powerful.

There were subterranean magazines, and shelters for the gun detachments. The latest range finding and five control apparatus was built and established on the.island. An arsenal w;is constructed ; there were machine shops—everything, in fact, that goes to make up a modern fortication of the niofjt complete kind. Submarine bases were established. A harbour was built witli steel and concrete, sufficiently lnr;w size to accommodate most of the Kaiser’s fleet.

Just what it all cost the German Government is a matter of speculation, but the outlay is estimated at not less than 2,000,000,000 dollars and probably twice that amount. The sea wajl itself cost in excess of 30,000,000 dollars. It was completed in 1910, twenty, years after the Germans took title tp the island. The outen work on the harbour for the accommodation of the German High Seas Fleet cost not less than 8,000,000 dollars.

It is not difficult to imagine how heart-sick the British Navy was at the German development and how, almost as soon as the deal was consummated, those who negotiated it were made the targets of public criticism. NAVAL FIGHTING NEAR THERE SOON AFTER WAR STARTED.

Heligoland became one of the centres of activity almost from the opening of the war. The day war was' declared, in fact, the British Navy sent a submarine flotilla to the vicinity of Heligoland. It was within the month that an engagement occurred between British and German warships of the lighter types almost within range of the island fortifications.

On numerous other occasions during the war Heligoland figured in the naval operations, but the base was so well protected with mines and heavy guns that the allied forces never were able to penetrate. The native residents of Heligoland are indifferent to the devastation, as most of them were born under the British flag before the island was transferred by the British to the Germans. During the war the civilian inhabitants were all deported to Hamburg and were given papers showing them to be of English birth. There they were watcli,ed as spies. DISARMAMENT OF THE PLAQE. , ;\Vb«P (fjhe armistice came it was one of tfie* primary requirements that the ,fortifications of .Heligoland he reduced to qotliing, and so it was provided m ’the Treatv of Versailles that this he in charge qf* an allied commission of naval p{fleers. The work of reducing the fortificatipns has tieen going on for the last two years and while their destruction is now almost complete there is still ,TflHch to do before t?ie job us finished. Great sections of concrete and steel, forming the emplacements for the heavy guns, have to (he blasted out; heavy cranes are required to convey the section? qf.ai;mqur ,plate to the .fiarbqur which is to be filled in ; altogether it is .an .engineering job of great magnitude. At .is primarily in charge of tfie .British, .who naturally are taking their ow.li peculiar interest ,in undoing wliat; they .might have done .but wfiicli the Kaiser did when fie got control of the one time British possession.