HELIGOLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 65, 17 March 1919, Page 4

HELIGOLAND.

The report that Britain is reluctant to accept Heligoland from the Peace Conference need cause no surprise. This little island is useful only as a fortified outpost; indeed, it is only as such that it can continue to exist. Erosion by the sea was proceeding steadily when the Germans obtained the island from Britain, and very heavy expenditure was necessary to check it. The Germans were willing to do thi6 because they considered Heligoland an essential link in their great scheme of naval expansion. Britain would not have the same incentive to maintain the protective works on the island. There is reason to believe that expert opinion would not favour the holding of the island as a base, and the political objections to such a policy are plain. About the whole question of the value of Heligoland to Germany and Britain there is a good deal of doubt. It is the general belief that we would have been in a far better position during tbe war had we held Heligoland, bu_ at lease some naval opinion in Britain does not agree with that view. With the development of the submarine, it would have been dangerous, and perhaps impossible, to base a strong fleet there, at a point so close to the other GermaD naval ports. The island would have been subjected to incessant attack by German aircraft; Zeppelins would prob

ably have dropped bombs on it almost every night, and the situation of the garrison might have been worse than that of the aircraft-harassed Germans at Ostend and Zeebrugge during the later stages of the war. Probably Heligoland was more valuable to the Germans than it would have been to us, but before an exact estimate can be formed a great deal more information about the operations in the North Sea, along with the opinions of the men who directed them, will be necessary. It is clear, however, that Germany cannot be allowed to keep the island as a naval base, and the best way out of the difficulty would seem to be to take it from Germany, dismantle it of guns, and let nature take its course. In the lapse of years the sea-walls would crumble, and eventually the island would disappear, which would be no great loss to anybody.