iency of our press censorship that this
should be the only reference to the island in any newspaper in the
course of three years. We have blundered a good deal during the war;
but it cannot be said of us that we have allowed our press to supply
the enemy or any one else with information likely to be of value.

Such knowledge as the public now possesses has come to it, not through
newspapers, but by way of gossip. Sir Bartholomew sometimes talks, and
the words of a man in his position are repeated in the smoking-rooms
of clubs, round tea tables and elsewhere. Unfortunately gossip of this
kind is most unreliable. The tendency is to exaggerate the picturesque
parts of the story and to misinterpret motives. It is slanderous, for
instance, to suggest that Sir Bartholomew was in any way attracted by
the lady who bore the title of Queen of Salissa. He never spoke to her
or even saw her. His interest in the Salissa affair was that of a
patriotic statesman. He told me this himself, yesterday after dinner.

It was Sir Bartholomew who drew my attention to the exhaustive
monograph on the Island of Salissa written by Professor Homer Geldes,
of Pearmount University, Pa., U.S.A. The book was published ten years
ago, but has never been widely read. I am indebted to the professor
for the following information.

Salissa is derived by Professor Geldes from a Greek word Psalis, which
means an arched viaduct. It is a doubtful piece of etymology, but if
it were reliable the name seems appropriate enough. The island,
according to the maps published in the book, appears to be a kind of
roof supported by the walls of caverns. It is possible that the
professor has exaggerated this peculiarity. He was naturally anxious
to make good his derivation of the name. But there are certainly many
caves under the fields and vineyards of Salissa. There is one
excellent natural harbour, a bay, about a mile wide, in the south
coast of the island. It is protected from heavy seas by a reef of
rock, a natural breakwater, which stretches across and almost blocks
the entrance of the bay.

In the chapter on Ethnography I find that the people are of a mixed
race. A Salissan, I gather, might boast with equal truth of being a
Greek, a Turk, a Slav, or an Italian. His skull is dolichocephalic.
His facial angle--but it is better for any one interested in these
points to read Professor Geldes' book for himself. No regular census
has ever been made on the island; but