The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-15
WAR ECHOES

, sea and the kiel canal and constitutes the greatest menace to the British fleet if it attempts a close-in blockade ot German ports. It was ceded to Ger ]. many by England as recently as 1s90
 in compensation for territorial con- sessions in Africa by Germany.
 Discussion of the strategic value of the little island less than square the mouth of the Elbe, waged back and forth between English military authori- ties while the bill for its cession was under discussion in Parliament. Some asserted that it would be worth fleet to England in case of war with Ger many. Others contended it was of no value as a coaling station for block ading force It's nearness to the main- land would expose 1t to the risk of capture immediately upon declaration cf war, they said, and in case of war with any other power 1t would require a Fleet to defend it. German and French critics both agreed that in the event of war between their countries pos- session of the little island would set free an army corps
 Aeoie"u Arom the middle of the tenth century was an independent re- public of Frisians, but became the pos session of the Duke of Schleswig in the fourteenth century. In the begin ming of the eighteenth century Den mark captured it. It was taken from Den mark in 1907 by the English, who used lit during the late Napoleonic wars as la storehouse from which to smugelo goods to the continent By the treaty | of Kiel it was ceded to England by Denmark in 1874. The British gov ernment wished to retain it then be- cause of it's proximity to Hanover, then united to England in the person of the sovereign, and because of its supposed cession to Germany it was used as the headquarters of the English fishing fleets in the North sea and was also a favorite watering place for Germans and Danes.
 After the formation of the German empire Bismarck made many liberal offers to England for the purchase of the island. and the desire for its pos session by the Germans was ardent When the bill for its cession came up
  mons MT Gladstone and Sir w. Yer non Harcourt, with many of their fol- lowers. refused to vote, declaring that the conservative ministry had tampered with the constitution and abandoned the treaty making prerogative of the crown by submitting the question of cession of territory to two Houses of Parliament
 The weight which the Germans at- tached at the time to the acquisition of Helgoland, after Prince Bismarck had repeatedly made offers of substantial compensation, suggested the suspicion when the island was handed over to William IT, after his dismissal of the old chancellor for apparently inade- quate cause, that some secret pact or alliance was at the foot of the matter. The British subjects on the island op- posed the transfer saying that they would lose their fishing and bathing privileges when Germany started build ing her Qualifications on their homo. Their rights as British subjects were to have been preserved in the transac- tion.
 On August 9, 1890, the British gov ernor, Arthur c. S. Barkly received the German representative, Herr von Bot ticher, and the next day Kaiser Will helm landed, hoisted the German flag and informally took possession, declar- ing:
 This island is chosen as a bulwarS of the sea, protection to German fish cries, central point for my ships of war, and a strong place and harbor all enemies who dare to show them selves upon it."
 New York Sun: In view of the re- tirement of the German right wing in the campaign in France, which had been pushed almost to the outer forti fications of Paris when the advance was checked. it is interesting to re- vert to the strategy of Field Marshall Won Moltke. which. it may be presumed. is the model of his nephew, Count Hell n'uth Johannes Vcn Moltke. the pres- ent chief of staff of the German army. It was at the solicitation of the nephew that the great field marshall wrote the book about the Franco German war. which was published in 1891 soon after his death. In the opening chapter of that modest narrative occurs this pas sage:
 Tn his plan of war submitted by the chief of the general staff and ac- cepted by the King, that officer had his eye fixed from the first upon the cap- ture of the enemy's capital. the poses sion of which is of more importance in France than in other countries. On the way thither the hostile forces were to be driven consistently as possible back from the fertile southern states into the narrower tract on the north. Bur above all the plan of war was based on the resolve to attack the enemy at once, wherever found, and keep the German forces so compact that su- perior force could always be brought into the field.'
 After saying that the advance Gin 1S70) to the frontier was 'preordained in every detail" Won Moltke continued:
 Ut is a delusion to believe that plan of war may be laid for a pro- longed period and carried out at every point The first collision with the ene- my changes the situation entirely ac- cording to the result. Some things de- cided upon will be impracticable; others which originally seemed impossible be- come feasible"
 The Germans in 1870 feared that the French would disregard the neutrality