THE CESSION OF HELIGOLAND.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 319, 2 November 1915, Page 2

THE CESSION OF HELIGOLAND.

On Saturday, August 9, 1890, when Mr W. E. Gladstone was Prime Minister, Heligoland was, with Queen Victoria’s consent, ceded to Germany,and next day it was visited by her grandson, the present Emperor William the Second, wiho proclaimed it part of his empire. It might seem a very small addition, for the two islands of which it consists, one larger and one smaller, extend together over an area of only one-fifth of a square mile; and as it lies off: the mouths of the rivers Elbe and Weser, and only twenty-eight miles . from the Sc|hleswig-Holstein i States which had been taken from Denmark by Germany, it seemed only a nautral gift. It had not belonged to Britain until 1807, when Denmark joined Napoleon, Emperor of the French, in his war against England. But it is at the south end of the North Sea, and the sea between those two pmall islands, which supplies a shelter for the German navy in the present war. Queen Vitcoria never anticipated that her grandson would ever attempt to obtain possession of the British Bits and Empire, and together with Austria and Turkey make war against them and against France, Belgium, Russia, and Italy, or the transfer would never have taken place.