Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1941. THREATENING UNCLE SAM.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1941. THREATENING UNCLE SAM.

a piece °i intimidatory bluster and propaganda, the threats of Grand-Admiral Raeder (Conmiander-in-Chief oi the German Navy) against the United States seem .likely to be singularly ineffective. It is clear that an ever-growing weight of American opinion supports the opinion expressed by Senator Guffey in a radio speech in which he demanded convoys, to Britain and said: “We face the alternatives ol convoying now or fighting later.” On 1 lie essential issue involved, opinion in the United Stales plainly has hardened to a point, at which threats like those of Admiral Maeder will be regarded with indifference. The position from this standpoint was summed up by the “New York Times” when it commented on an announcement by President Roosevelt last month that, American protection had been extended to Greenland and on the President’s action in asking Congress lor power to use foreign vessels in United States ports. Observing that the President was moving directly to make certain “that the control of the Atlantic remains in friendly hands.” tin 1 New York newspaper added:— The President’s action gives further notice that the day of American isolation is dead and gone and that we fully recognise that the forthcoming “battle of transportation” is as fully important as the “battle of production.” We have set our hands to the defence of Britain because we know that Britain is the citadel of the Atlantic world, and by one means or another we shall see that the needed weapons for the defence of Britain reach the English shores. Because the safety and future of the United States are as much at stake as the safety and future of Britain, it has now become, in the United States, purely a question of how Britain may best and most, effectively be helped to win the Battle of the Atlantic. On the question of the methods Io be adopted to that end. something to the point is likely to be heard I rout President. Roosevelt in the address he is about Io deliver. It may be taken for granted that the most blood-curdling threats by Admiral Raeder, or by any other spokesman lor the Nazi dictatorship, will not influence the American decision. On the other hand, the United Slates is very much interested in the fact that a naval action has been fought, off the coast, of Greenland, at a cost to Britain of the noble battlecruiser flood and her complement, and that a German squadron, including the new battleship Bismarck, has been pursued out of those waters by a British naval force. Greenland is of commanding strategic importance both in the Battle of the Atlantic and as a stepping-stone for aggression directed against the New World. If there were no war at present in progress, the United States and Canada, now linked in a joint defence agreement, would still have every possible reason to resist with might and main any attempt by the Nazi dictatorship to establish bases in Greenland. In spite'of Arctic gales and the generally ice-bound condition of its territory, Greenland, situated roughly two-thirds of the way across the North Atlantic from Europe, might easily be made, a formidable base of attack on the North American continent. In the words of a recent writer: — Greenland is in a position to play a unique part in the development of trans-Arctic flying. The practically level top of its ice-cap—the only survivor of the last ice age left in the Northern Hemisphere—forms a continuous and nearly perfect emergency landing field 1,500 miles long and up to 600 miles wide. . . The most direct routes from Chicago and other American cities to Paris, London, Berlin, and Moscow lie across Greenland. Although Greenland is 84 per' cent snow-covered in midsummer, the snowfree 16 per cent amounts to some 130.000 square miles, an area larger than that of the British Isles. With a total area of 840,000 square miles, Greenland has a population of about 16,700, of whom 400 are Danes and the rest Eskimos or persons of mixed descent. It is, of course, because the vital strategic importance of Greenland is recognised clearly that United States protection has been extended to this Arctic territory. As was indicated in a statement by President Roosevelt some weeks ago, the American Government is determined to establish adequate safeguards against a. Nazi occupation of Greenland. What exactly the Nazi action then referred to by the President amounted to has not been explained, but an American State Department announcement issued last month said that during the summer of 1940, three ships proceeding from Norwegian territory under German occupation arrived off the coast of Greenland, ostensibly for commercial or scientific purposes; and at least one of these ships landed parties nominally for scientific purposes, but actually for meteorological assistance to German belligerent operations in the North Atlantic. These parties were eventually cleared out. On March 27. 1941. a German bomber flew over the eastern coast of Greenland and on the following day another German war plane likewise reconnoitred the same territory. Under these circumstances it appeared that further steps for the defence of Greenland were necessary to bring Greenland within the system of hemispheric defence envisaged by the Act of Havana. In its obvious significance, the incursion of the Bismarck and her consorts into Greenland waters may be axpeeted further to stimulate American determination both Io safeguard Greenland and to play an effective part in the*Battle of the Atlantic. As against, that determination, threats like those uttered by Admiral Raeder may be expected to count for nothing at all.