13 OCTOBER 1917, Page 15

HELIGOLAND.

[To THE EDITOR or TUE •• SrECTATOs.-3

SIR,-1 do net know from what "geography books" your corre- spondent takes his deseription of Heligoland as " a low-lying

but the cliffs oil one side are two Impaired feet high: they an• somewhat lower on the other sides, its the Oberlaud is slightly atilt. The general aspect of the island is that of a great fortress in the sec, and such indeed it is. The area is One square mile. There is is "low-lying islet" called the Nine close to Heligoland: and Ones part of it; it used to be used as o bathing islet. I ant writing away from my books, unit I therefore cannot describe the geology of Heligoland here, but, roughly speaking, while the exposed surface is triable, the heart of the reek is of extreme hardness. Fur better titan attemplieg to blast the island would be that it should be held by us as a security for the fulfilment Di such conditions as the Allies will impose on liermeny at the end of the war. This is the course which has been advocated before in the Spectator. Heligoland iu British heeds was always 4l severity