A DISAPPEARING ISLET.

Wairarapa Age, 20 March 1925, Page 4

A DISAPPEARING ISLET.

Nobody in the British Empire will weep -very copiously when the last is seen of the fateful little island of Heligoland, which we are told is now fast vanishing in the waves of the “Wet Triangle.’’ During the great war Heligoland was the pivot of the German naval defence, an outpost of very great strength both for offensive and defensive purposes. This little rock is sometimes supposed to have derived its name from “ Heiligoland ” (holy land) on account of it old pagan temples to which the Angles camo from the mainland of Europe to worship. After that it was a natural stronghold of sea-rovers through the ages when every shore washed by the North Sea was constantly harried by the Vikings of Scandinavia and Germany. When it became an appanage of the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein it was time and again pledged as security for loans raised frotp the free city of Hamburg. It was seized by the English from the Danes in 1807, and was held as a unique and worthless British possession until 1891, when it was bartered to Germany for concessions in Africa. Heavily fortified, and strengthened in its fabric by masses of concrete, Heligoland in German hands became almost impregnable. At any rate the British forces made no attempt during the war to reduce it, though they singed the Kaiser’s beard under its very guns in August and December 1914. When the peace terms wore agreed to it was stipulated that the fortifications should be completely destroyed and the island itself allowed to disintegrate. All the massive harbour works and forts were blow up and the islet was left bare to the elements of the North Sea, which are now doing their work truly and well. In A.D. 800 Heligoland had a circumference of 120 miles, in 1300 of 45 miles. It is now something like three miles. Its height of about 190 feet is crowned by a church, and the lighthouse is believed to contain the most powerful light in the world —40,000,000 candle power. That prosumbaly will have to be maintained even if the last remnant of the island has to be preserved for the purpose.