the lalanders had been consulted or were to be" The PM replied in the
negative to both and added (rather lamely, since it hud never been
•
referred to) that a plebiscite was alion to British political traditione
and he saw no need for one anyhow; such objections as the Heligolanders о
had expressed in the past to association with Germany arose from their
of conscription and, as the official announcement indicated, care had
been taken to provide for their exemption from the German conscription
law. In this and other early PQs there was an obvious pressure to make
the cession subject to Parliamentary sanction for the purpose of
*
for,
KL
I find pro
ཏ་་མ* ཅནལ་ཁྱིལ
securing some means of expression/or protection of Heligoland wishes.
A further PQ in the Lords of the same day asked the Govt to state,
before the Bill was submitted to Parliament, what steps had been taken
to ascertain the wishes of the islanders and for confirmation (or
otherwise) of a statement by the Colonial Pecretary in 1885 that
official information indicated that the Heligolanders were averse to transfer to Germany. The Colonial Secretary replied that in 1885/ no
exemption from conscription had been proposed, and he indicated that no
staps had been taken to ascertain the Heligolanders' views. Pressed
further, he replied that "HMG have reason to believe that the Heligo-
laners are not dissatisfied with the change". The Foreign Under-Secret-
ary was then asked in the Commons (20 June) what steps would be taken
to ascertain their wishes, to which he replied that HMG had reason for
believing that the arrangement (i.e. the safeguards) might well remove
the chief objections of the islanders. Again pressed (23 June) to say
expressly whether the Heligolanders had been consulted, the First Lord
of the Treasury (W. H. Smith) evaded answering and added only that HMG
believed the Agreement would "certainly not be disadvantageous to the
Helioglanders". But in reply to a similar question on the same day
the Colonial Pecretary rdplied plainly that "no steps have been taken
to ascertain he views of the inhabitants" and sought justification in
GD their exemption from conscription. Further pressed with a reference о
to reports of recent demonstrations in lleligoland against transfer in
the English press and elsewhere, the Colonial Secretary desclaimed
any official information on these events.
nial
On 24 June one MP asked (for answer by the FM) "whether in
accordance with the Ionian Islands precedent, the Govt would undertake