The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-01-17
MAY ! BE RETURNED TO
 BRITISH RULE
Mystery Attached To Meth
 ods Used By Huns To Wreck Forts.

London, Jan. 17.---"Our present rul-
 CTS will not think i'll of us if, in bid ding farewell to the Queen of Eng
 land, who has ruled us so kindly, we
 do so with heavy hearts"
 ''The words were spoken nearly 30
 years ago by an island dignitary on
 behalf of the people of Heligoland," says the Manchester Guardian"
 sir Arthur Bark1y has yielded up the governorsaip to the German Min ister of State; glasses had been raised to the English Queen and the German Emperor; the German national anthem had been played by the band, and the Union Jack over the Presidency and the little English cannons at the southern point of the Rock Island had been lowered and removed.
 That the island dignitary---the Heh goland baths director---was wrong in his estimate of Teuton tolerance soon became evident.
 '@The following day, August 10, 1890. German men-o'-war in the roadstead l thundered out their salute as his tna- perial majesty, in person, stepped brislkly ashore to take formal posses
 sion of the island and forthwith began the most incisive alterations in all branches of the administration. t@We know what that meant. The War Lord in landing pronounced that Heligoland should become the Father lands protection and defence against enemies trespassing in the North Sea- Everything became at once kaiserdch or konig1ich, down to the names of streets and villas and bungalows. A
 military governorship was established 1 The towering rocks were converted 1 into bristling forts. A war harbor nearly as large as the island itself was run out to the southwest at a cost of many millions. Hehgoland,
 transformed into the eye of empire,
 guarding the river mouths. ceased to exist save as a part of the Prussian 1 fighting machine.
 ttIt still remained a summer resort,
 but Prussian military engineers---as
 your first walk above the red cliffs
 would prove---did their level best to
 rid it of all claims to beauty.
 "In due course came war. The whole population were expelled from 1 their homes at six hours notice, i shipped to Altona and Hamburg, and l there put under police supervision. l Strict orders had been issued by the | island commandant that all keys to l houses, rooms and cupboards were to 1 be left in their locks, and only such 1 luggage was allowed as each one I could carry. And these were German ] citizens! It is significant that in the days of crisis they were treated as | semi English. The only two actual ! British subjects resident on the island l one a sailor with 23 years service in l the British navy, were flung into 1 prison three days before the war was 1 declared
 "'Tain't no catch being under Prussian rule,' says the sailor. remin- ! iscent over 8 rurngrog, but still lean l from his long bondage. "The people eventually returned to find their houses occupied by Ger man naval officers, who had brought their families to share their rest cure. Or ransacked by the garrison of artil- lerists, who had spent the war in comparative luxury 'stupef1ed with contentment' For from start to finish not a salvo was fired by the batteries, 1 though their erection cost Germany 1 s11,75O,000. They found. too, their l local government still further under
 mined by the 500 Prussian officials 1 and employees retained on the island. l Long experience of the German l conception of the sacredness of trea.- l ties has undoubtedly caused a strong 1 separatist movement among Heligo- l flanders. If the right of self determi- | nation were justly applied the Union | Jack would float in the breeze again 1 above the old Residency garden, l where floats a shredded German naval
 ensign. Meantime the islanders have reminded the Supreme Council of the
 years when. under the long and bliss 1 full administration of the great British l nation, all our rights and customs were always most loyalty uphe1d,' and | have begged that the many injustices l of the lPrussian regime may be ex-
 an1ined and abolished.
 l '"The quaint concluding phrases of i this petition to Versailles are worthy 1 of wider reading:
 "tWe Heligolanders, on our little 1 island in the middle of the sea, far 1 from all the worlds commotion, form the very smallest nation which has for centuries maintained it's inde- pendence and its local customs. We
 seek neither wealth nor ostentation.
 but desire and hope to live our. lives
 in our lonely home upon the rocks,
 in peace and contentment, as our fore fathers did before us.'
 '"Their little town is an Old World
 seaside place, hemmed in by fantastic rock shapes. isolated from the Conti- | nent sometimes for weeks together, yet rich in memories. Its streets are
 as clean as it's kitchen par1ors. Its | only newspaper is it's ancient town
 crier. It has no roads. no vehicles, 1 not a dozen four-Iegged animals. and
 in former days it had no crime.
 "HeIigo1and wants to get back to l the old conditions It would have preferred to remain an obscure mari
 time village, as nature had ordained, 1 rather than figure in history as 8 l tyrant's slave. Above all, it wants to see the last of the fortress cancer, and the naval base, and all their gar- risons and officials.
 'When these are gone there will be l no more history for Heligo1and- l nothing but the coming and going of ] fishing smacks and of summer ho1i- day makers from the outer world, big ships gliding silent on the horizon, 1 seagulls, surf and storm, and the va
 rying coIors of the seascape under the i and moon.
 First snow on HeHgoland.' said