HELIGOLAND DISMANTLED.

Western Star, 30 March 1920, Page 4

HELIGOLAND DISMANTLED.

ISLANDERS’ HATRED OF GERMANS. Shortly after the Inter-allied Coinmission landed! at Heligoland in. motor launches a- body of officers from the' battleship were also- allowed ashore. The reception, of the British officers from the battleships, who were allowed to ramble at will among the fortifications formerly so jealously-guarded, was as friendly as could be wished. On all sides the islanders smiled, and many a Britsh officer was requested in excellent English toi do whatever he could to urge the British people to allow the Heligolanders again to come under British rule. They most certainly do not like the Germans- They did not like them before the war, and their treatment on the outbreak of hostilities was such as to render them life-long enemies of the Germans. The whole of the inhabitants of the islands, 2,200 souls, were taken from their homes and interned in Germany, mostly at Ruhleben. When the war was over they were repatriated, and they found that their houses without exception, bald been looted and robbed of all their contents -otf any value by the German troops quartered on the island. It- may also be recalled! that all the older inhabitants were born under British rule. It is not generally known, that it was on this island that Hoffmann Von Eallerslobon, the German people’s poet, wrote the German war song ‘ Deutschland Tiber Alles.” Tliis was! on August 26, 1841. He died 46 years ago on January 19. -—Forts Dismantled.—< In those days Heligoland wag a peaceful unfortified spot, where a happy band of islanders lived by fishing. It is now a mighty armory, one Vast fort. Great gums stand 1 sentinel at both ends of this mile-long island. On the bill of which the island really consists are huge pits, from the bottoms of which great guns arise to fire and disappear completely. Yards and yards below ground are long electrically - lighted passages, the whole one vast labyrinth, where there is complete accommodation, for the whole of the garrison, if need be—one mighty fortification beneath another- mighty fortification. Now it is in ruins. Special workmen from Germany have been employed for months on dismantling operar tioms. Finally, the wonderful harbour and wonderful defences will he blown up. Thus will disappear in a. flash the work of year® and the result of many millions in money.