CESSION OF HELIGOLAND

Evening Star, Issue 23208, 6 March 1939, Page 11

CESSION OF HELIGOLAND

FACTOR IN WORLD DOMINATION Situated in the North Sea, a short distance from the coast of Germany is the once dismantled, but now heavily fortified island of Heligoland. _ The story of its cession to Germany is an interesting one. The first suggestion seems to have come from Joseph Chamberlain, who in these years (1880-90) was a warm advocate of friendship with Germany, and thought the island a suitable compensation for the concessions which Lord Salisbury was seeking in South-west and East Africa. Count Herbert Bismarck, son of Prince von Bismarck, the “ Iron Chancellor,” to whom, while he was on a visit to London, Chamberlain broached tho idea in strict confidence, records that he could with difficulty conceal the satisfaction with which he received it. The British evidently had no idea of tho importance which, with the Kiel Canal in prospect and the dream of naval power materializing, this little island had in German eyes.

The young Emperor, Kaiser William II (now the ex-Kaiser) was delighted and wished to push forward at once to the conclusion of the bargain. But Bismarck said, wait: too much eagerness might make tho British suspicious and cause them to draw back. So the Ambassador in London was instructed to feel his way with Lord Salisbury, who said that while ho personally felt no great enthusiasm for ‘‘granting territorial advantages to colonies which were more or Jess independent.” he was “quite to see what real advantage Heligoland would be to Germany.” She would be obliged to pay out large sums of money to make anything out of the island, and he believed “ its existence was not assured for ever, since it was badly undermined by the sea.” The Ambassador agreed that the gain to Germany was almost nil but suggested the remote possibility that in a war between her and France, French warships might run to shelter there and so embitter British and German relations—a suggestion Lord Salisbury scouted as altogether out of the question. The ambassador reported to his Government that Lord Salisbury had an open mind but that it would be better not to press him further at present and above all not to “ give him the impression that we set great store bv possessing the island.” 'This was in April, 1889, and since Bismarck said wait, the question slipped over the year and was not settled finally till May of the following year, when Prince von Bismarck had passed from the scene. Then finally, after hard bargaining, Lord Salisbury ceded the island in exchange for the withdrawal of the German and the substitution of a British Protectorate over Zanzibar.

• “ The English Cabinet,” said the ambassador in summarising the transaction, “ has not the slightest idea what value Heligoland has for us in regard to the Baltic Canal J and it goes without saying that T have most carefully, avoided letting any knowledge of this subject leak out In his post war “ Memoirs ” the exKaiser goes to the length of stating that “ through the possession of the island the building pi the German navy and its victory at the Skager Rnk (Jutland) were made possible. *’ If the possession of the island really had this portentous result history might say that Lord Salisbury was the instrument of an ironic spirit preparing disaster for Germany.