Are the inhabitants of these islands never hostile? (7)
I believe the answer is:
pacific
'hostile?' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'are the inhabitants of these islands never' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'are' could be 'a' (short for 'are', historical unit of measurement) and 'a' is present in the answer.
'islands' could be 'ci' (Channel Islands) and 'ci' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pacific that I've seen before include "Peaceful in character" , "Peaceful in intent" , "Avoiding conflict" , "Non-combatant" , "US/Asian ocean" .)