WILL ICELAND JOIN THE EMPIRE?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 94, 30 July 1943, Page 3

WILL ICELAND JOIN THE EMPIRE?

By..Snaebjorn Jonsson ... Condensed from Tlic. Spectator, T London Iceland exports the bulk of what she produces, and imports what she consumes. Thus the size, of her trade is out of all proportion to her small population. She was therefore particularly haul hit by the international trade restrictions which during the last decade before the war were producing so adverse an effect upon international relations. Textiles and metal goods •which we had previously been buying in Great. Britain we. now had to import from Italy and Germany —inferior grades bought at higher prices—because these countries absorbed a considerable share of. our exports. Trade was in elfect mostly barter. All resources were now concentrated. on fishing on an intensive j scale, for export. Most of the ships took theii catches to Great Britain, but some went to Germany, where the fish fetched enormous prices,. Unfortunately for us the latter country soon adopted war methods which compelled Great Britain to enforcc a total blockade, and thus the German market was closed. However, tlie British market has readily absorbed all the fish caught, and the prices obtained have, mostly been f ' good, sometimes very high. Then in May came the British occupation, which changed much. Only the building trade suffered. All building material has to be imported, and, of course, that is impossible at present. For the British forces have provided much employment. some directly, but far more' indirectly. Temporarily, tit any rate, the occupation has been a tremendous economic boon for Iceland. A policy of the most absolute noninterference has been maintained. And in so far as there have been any relations between the garrison— spread throughout the whole country—and the native population these have been of the most • amicable kind, and, there has. been no instance Whatever of any collision. If at the beginning there may have been some inclination to look with suspicion upon the "invaders" that suspicion was soon dispelled. Clearly, as long as the war lasts Iceland will be economically dependent upon the friendly attitude of Great Britain, which is now almost the sole buyer of our exports. But not only the economic but al.so the political future of Iceland is in the balance. Under the Act of Union of 1918 she had since that year been , a Sovereign State,, united to Denmark only by a common king and by an agreement under which Den-

mark nominally handled Icclandic foreign affairs, though this scrvicc also had to some extent been assumed hj' Iceland herself. The union was terminable at the end of 194.3, and all the politieal parties in the Althing (Iceland's Parliament) had , at various times avowed their de- . termination that terminated it , should be. Then came the German invasion of Denmark last April, and on the next day Iceland, for obvious . reasons, declared severance of the political ties that until then had united the two countries. j Under the present temporary arrangement the executive power, previously exercised by the King, is vested in the Icelandic Ministry, and Iceland is now de facto a republic, with a monarchic constitution. Plainly this is an unwieldy and unsatisfactory form, even as a temporary measure; and of course no one thinks of it as permanent. In times of war the geographical position of Iceland cannot be regarded as isolated, and does not confer any security upon the country; neither does the declaration of permanent neutrality afford any protection. Since these facts became universally recognised, only two sources of protection have been suggested, A*iGreat Britain and the United States of America, i.e., that the Monroe Doctrine should be interpreted to apply to Iceland,, as geographically it could. As regards American protection, it is in the first place exceedingly doubtful -whether it would be forthcoming if needed. And, secondly, the' British occupation of Iceland has done something to make people realise who would be the best guardian of Icelandic freedom and the country's security. To the more intelligent members of the Icelandic community this has long been obvious, and three years ago it was publicly declared (calling forth no adverse comment) by Mr Jonas Jonsson, ExMinister of Justice, that only to Great Britain need we look as a source of protection in the future. It is probably true that the Icelandic people have not as yet made i up their milid regarding their wishes about the political future of the country. The more moonshiny and less practical may still think, of a republic with no political connection with any foreign" country, and protected by the eternal calm of declared neutrality. The more pragmatically minded would wish Ice-, land to become a sovereign member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Sooner or later the proposition is ljkely to become a matter for British statesmen to deal Avith. That is tlie only way some of us Icelanders can see of safeguarding Iceland's freedom.