When a long-dormant volcano spewed molten rock over their windswept Atlantic island in October 1961, the 260 inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha were rescued and brought to never-had-it-so-good Britain. Last week, after a year's exposure to the packaged joys of the affluent society, the hardy, forthright islanders decided that they had never had it so bad. In a secret ballot to decide whether or not they should return to a primitive, precarious existence on their isolated island, adult Tristan islanders voted overwhelmingly, 148 to 5, to return home.
They would have little to go back to. An advance party that...