MOVING DEVIL'S ISLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

MOVING DEVIL'S ISLAND.

PROPOSAL IN FRANCE. CRUEL COLD AFTER HEAT. Complaints received from foreign Powers who have possessions in the neighbourhood of French Guiana, concerning the number of escaped convicts who are seeking refuge in their lands, have, caused a new proposal to be mooted in France. The proposal is that the French penal settlement at St. Laurent du Maroni. which is one of a group of three islands, in -which the notorious Devil's Island is included, be moved to Kerguelen Island, in the extreme south of the Indian Ocean. If the plan is carried out, the convicts will change from almost dying of the gruelling heat and malaria of French Guiana to Ihe most extreme cold, for Kerguelen Island is the last shred of land before the Antarctic ice pack is reached, savs the Daily Express. It is one of the most dismal and lonely spots in the world. No vegetation can be grown there except a special kind of cabbage; no cattle could be raised there, and only a few sheep. Even fish, for sonic reason which has not yet been discovered, avoid its small coast line. The only occasional inhabitants of the island are the members of whalers' crews and shipwrecked mariners. Even these usually die of scurvy. The scandal of the present Devil's Island would not l>e lessened. Another suggestion is that 'he penal settlement should be moved to the island of New Amsterdam, another French possession further north in the Indian Ocean. 'l'he climate there is more equable, and the buildings required could be constructed from local stone, thus avoiding the necessity of transporting it many hundreds of" miles from the mainland. In addition to this, the land could easily be cultivated, so that fresh food could be obtainable.