GERMANY'S GIBRALTAR.

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 October 1910, Page 8

GERMANY'S GIBRALTAR.

j The statement, that the Germans hare making the island of.Heligoland into "another Gibraltar" is an obvious exaggeration in terms. Gibraltar owes its strength to certain natural advantages not shared by the island which Great Britain ceded to Germany in return for' certain African territory. The importance of the British fortress is due to the position it occupies at the gateway to the Mediterranean, its guns practically dominating the narrow strait between Spain and j Africa. • Heligoland lies off the mouth of the Elbe, but it could be useful in time of war only as a base for naval operations. An' enemy need not approach it except for purposes of attack. As a matter of face, the enormous expenditure of German money on the island has been due to the inroads of the sea rather than to the cost of fortifications. "The devouring sea is slowly but persistently gnawing away this North Sea stronghold," stated the Navy recently, "and it has iust been announced that a further'sum of £BO,OOO must be spent immediately on the construction of a new retaining wall. The amount is included ill the Budget of the Building Department as a "most extremely urgent work." The German taxpayer must shudder to think of the millions alraady poured out in this merciless battle with the sea. A Berlin Radical Journal computed the sum at £6,000,000, but we must allow for an exaggeration. As a torpedo base the Admiralty regards Heligoland of superlative importance; but all laymen who pay the pipar cannot be expected to see it in the same light, and whenever Helogoland is mentioned you hear an angry grumble." 'i he correspondent who supplied this information added that as the German people were disposed to resent the increases in the naval estimates some of the expenditure on coast defence found its way into the budgets of civil departments. Last year the Building Department accounts showed an expenditure of £60.000 on cordite, and an in- ! quisitive Reichstag deputy inquired what use was to be made of the. explosives. He was told that the material had been supplied to coast batteries.