Unfriendly Island

Her Majesty Queen Salote of Tonga or the Friendly Islands, a British protectorate, was informed, last week, that Falcon Island had again appeared, some 40 miles to the west of her realm, and seemed to be somewhat larger this time than when it last sank.

Meanwhile the British High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, Sir Eyre Hutson, was taking steps to claim Falcon Island again in the name of His Britannic Majesty. As everyone knows, an island or continent becomes "new land" whenever it sinks and rises again, thus necessitating its "rediscovery" and much other pompous, legal procedure.

Unfriendly Falcon Island has repeatedly vexed His Majesty's Government in this fashion, since it was originally charted by a British warship in 1845.