IN PRAISE OF ST. HELENA
_ [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your issue of February 5th, Mr. Essary takes his farewell of England and he says that " should a perverse fate ever banish me to indefinite exile, leaving me to select my St. Helena, I would unhesitatingly return to England." Might I suggest for Mr. Rasary's consideration that he might do a great deal worse than select the actual St. Helena for his indefinite exile ?
We in St. Helena are prepared to offer many of the amenities of life and not a few of its luxuries. What do you want : Climate ? Ideal. A temperature ranging in the valleys from 68- to 84 degrees in the summer months, i.e., from October to April, and from 57 to 70 degrees during the remainder of the year. In the hills there is about ten degrees lower temperature. Freedom from taxation ? Here we have it. Income tax is non-existent and Customs dues, the main source of Revenue, very low.
We offer golf, cricket, hockey, tennis, sea-fishing and bathing, Bridge and pleasant society. We have at present no motors, but how long this state of affairs will last I am not prepared to say. The chief mode of transport is by horse, either ridden or driven. English is the only language and English coin is current. The people are civil and law-abiding and intensely loyal, and servants are good and contented. The passage from England occupies from fourteen to seventeen days and the service is a regular four-weekly one from Tilbury by the Union-Castle Company's ships ; there is direct cable communication between the Island and the world.
As a result of the Napoleonic exile the average person looks upon St. Helena as a grim, barren, fortress-like rock. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here you have a little paradise set down in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean vying with Devonshire in its verdure and beauty and in the mildness of its climate.
There are undoubtedly many worse places for " indefinite exile " than St. Helena.—I am, Sir, &e., A CORRESPONDENT IN ST. HELENA.
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