Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-12
IN THE DAYS NEWS
HeIaoIand Would secone Aaaln sritis

HeIeoIand Would Become Again British
 Because Helgolahd became under | Germany as truly a synonym for forti- fled strength as Gibraltar, most per- sons probably think of the little island | in the North Sea as being essentially | German as Hamburg, the goosestep or | the Lorelei," says a bulletin from the Washington, D. C., headquarters of the National Geograp phic Society. But | this bit of land was such a newcomer in the German family circle when the World War begah in 1914" continues the bulletin, that the greater part of its adult population had been born under an alien flag and was watched like spies by German secret agents during the hostilities.
 This rather tenuous relationship be- tween Germany and Helgoland is re- called in the light of recent dispatches stating that the people of the island have sent petition to the League of Nations asking for naturalization under protection of the League or for remuneration to Great Britain. For it was to Great Britain, strangely enough, that Helgoland belonged for nearly 100 years prior to 1890 when it was ceded | to Germany.
 'Helgoland lies about 40 miles off shore from the mouth of the Elbe river, and geographically might belong either to Holland to the southwest, to Ger many to the southeast, or to Denmark
 to the northeast. As a matter of fact the little island, at one time or another has belonged to each of those i countries and to England besides Its people were originally Frisians as were
 the inhabitants of the entire adjoin-
 ing coast. Their language, still in use
 on the island, is closer to the old
 Anglo-Saxon than any other existing
 tongue.
 ''The Frisians fought as stubbornly
 as any people in Europe against the
 encroachments of gre;& kingdoms and
 empires opposing sdccessively the
 Romans, Franks, Dutch, Spanish, Ger
 mans and Danes. The people of iso-
 lated Helgoland maintained their in-
 dependence long after their brothers
 of the mainland had been subjugated,
 and have keptalive even today, in the
 face of intensive efforts at Germaniza- | tion, something of the Frisian spirit | A republic-one of the tiniest in
 Europe-from $50 until hte fourteenth
 century, Helgoland then came under
 the control of the dukes of Schleswig
 This was a semi duchy
 under Danish influence. The island
 was taken over by Denmark at the
 beginning of the eighteenth century and was in turn captured by Great Britain about a century later during
 the Napoleonic wars. Germany came ) into possession of the island as the re- : suit of a political trade, not entirely ) pleasing to the inhabitants, who were thus thrown under German control The cession took place in 1890 in re- turn for the reorganization by Germany | Of prff icIo ) bar. on the eastern coast of Africa. "No sooner had Germany come into
 possession of Helgoland than she
 began fortifying the island on a gigan- tic scale. The Kaiser planned to make
 the crag the eye of the Empire and r it's guard. Turrets of powerful, long
 range guns were placed on all sides dominating the lines of approach tc [ the mouths of the Ems, the Weser. the : Elbe and the Kiel Canal. Practically 9 the entire surface of the island, about a fifth of a square mile in area, wa: r made bomb-proof. Underground pas
 sages ran in every direction through = the solid rock and commodious under. ground barracks and seaplane hangar
 were constructed beyond the reach O l bombardment. It is believed that mort f than s50,000,000 was spent in thi , creation of the Gibraltar of the Nortl y Sea-
 r By the Treaty of Versailles it wa l. required that Helgoland be stripped O $ all this expensive military equipment For months allied experts have beer q supervising the tearing down of tn y concrete and armor-plate fertilization
 and the cutting of the great guns b ; means of the oxy-acetylene flame int <, sections like gargantuan metal dough . nuts. But so well did the German p build their North Sea fortress that |. is estimated that another year an ;. probably two will pass bfore the la. of the war machinery will be dismant ed.
 "The few thousand inhabitants IF Helgoland are fishermen. Their on ,e ambition, they say, is that militarisl
 shall give them a wide berth in the fl
 ture and that they shall be permitte ,, to resume the making of their Twin
 from the turbulent North Sea-" ss Usually it's the promising your
 man that gets into debt.