THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19815, 5 December 1919, Page 6

THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

A PRE-WAR GERMAN RESORT. Among the territorial adjustments of the war is the restoration to the British Empire of the Isle of Wight (says a writer in an English paper). It is an achievement which hitherto has not been recognised in its true significance. Only now that the Isle of Wight is ours onco more do we begin to realise that five years ago wo had lost it. Before the war the Germans had obtained possession bf it by processes of peaceful penetration. In summer, autumn and winter hordes of them overran it. They filled its hotels and boarding-houses and swarmed in its apartments. They would lie about on its sunny beaches, getting their upturned faces sunburnt. In the early hours of dawn they were to be seen wandering about on the high downs, picking out suitable artillery positions dominating Portsmouth Harbour. They went gaily out in small boats and plumbed the dancing waves for holes in which submarines could lie. They acquired houses and propertied* and engaged in building and reclamation operations. They were extremely civil and ingratiating of speech and manner, and gave an air of sincerity to their attitude by telling the islanders of tlio beauty and attractiveness of the island. Ycntnor. the gem town of the group of gem towns, was dominated by them to the degree that, with the exception of the more daring honeymoon couples, the ordinary English holiday-makers were pushed out. Shankliu was theirs, too, and so was Sandown, while they pervaded all the rest of the island. HUN'S GONE-VISITORS WANTED. To-day the Isle of Wight is free of the invader. You can fish for Germans with sausage bait in the score of delightful resorts that fringe the const line and never get a bite. But having recovered possession of the territory,’ the nation has now to discover the host thing to do with it. There is a feeling among the inhabitants that it would he a good thing if the,,island became a health and pleasure resort for British holiday-makers.' It is cxtraordnarily well adapted to the purpose, for all of it but the remote spots are within four hours’ journey of London. It has the advantage of four aspects fronting, respectively, due south, due north, duo east and duo west, and its separate and distinctive watering-places arc almost as closely clustered as industrial towns in Lancashire. It is well down in the sun zone, so that palms and cactus plants, fuchsia, hedges and all sorts of sul>-tropical things grow in the open air, yet its sleep downs climb to such a- height that it has a bracing air in the hottest summer weather. ft is rich in lobsters and crabs, its lamb is famous for toothsomciiess, and there was butter all through the war.. boro is the tragedy of Wight. The Gentians have departed for ever, hut the British do not appear yet to have heard of it. There are holidaymakers of Course; it was full of thsin at Easter and Whitsuntide; mere Is always a steady supply of honoymooncrs. But the people whom the Germans chiefly displaced—the patrons of its - excellent hotels and the renters of the charming chalets that decorate its terraces—can hardly be said to have rediscovered it as yet The danger is that if the English people do not take possession of it, the Gormans will comeback. Erom that danger the island must be saved.