ON SWASTIKA SHIPS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 183, 21 November 1941, Page 5

ON SWASTIKA SHIPS

ENGLISH ROSES FOR ICELAND

BRITISH EXPORTS INCREASE

England's national flower, the rose will bloom in treeless Iceland on bushes exported there by British nurserymen. They have been carried in ships of the Iceland Steamship Company, whose houseflag bear:» the original swastika —not the twisted form used by the Nazis which say heralds, has a tradition of evjl centuries old. Carnation plants grown in Sussex have also gone to Iceland from Britain, as well as clothing, boots and shoes, chemicals, cigars, wireless sets, toothpaste, fishing gear, musical instruments, hairpins, gin, soap, bricks, motor cars, floor polish and foodstuffs, including thousands; of tins of baking powder. Christmas puddings were sent last year, but they did not arrive until January. Iceland imports nearly all general commodities, having little manufacturing resources of her own. Before the Avar, Britain supplied only about 20 per cent of these imports, but now that Iceland is cut off from Europe, nearly all her requirements come from Britain. American troops stationed in Iceland will have no excuse for not writing home, for recent cargoes include large consignments of notepaper, pens, ink and lead pencils from Britain. And they will have to be careful what they write, for blue pencils have been sent for the censors!