Lord Salisbury has ordered the reoccupation of Socotra, an island
of about 1,000 square miles, at the entrance of the Gulf of Aden, inhabited by Arabs. The island was pur- chased in 1824 from the Imam of Muscat by Lord W. Bentinck, and although it was abandoned as unhealthy, the Europeans living on the coast, instead of on the high land in the interior, it was never surrendered. Lord Salisbury has ordered it to be reoccupied, and it may turn out valuable, either as a penal settlement for Bombay, or as a station which it is necessary for the safety of Aden to keep in our own hands. It will be governed, we presume, as a dependency of Aden, and would not make a bad settling-ground for rescued slaves. The island, how- ever, needs exploration first of all, if only to ascertain whether it produces any source of wealth beyond the aloe. There may be sulphur there.
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