APPROACHES TO AMERICA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1941, Page 5

APPROACHES TO AMERICA

“Attacks on shipping off the very shores we are determined to protect present an actual military danger to the Americas. That danger has recently been heavily underlined by. the presence in western hemisphere waters of Nazi battleships of great striking power. "Most supplies for Britain go by the northerly route which comes close to Greenland and Iceland. Germany's heaviest attack is on that route. A Nazi occupation of Iceland or bases in Greenland would bring the war close to our continental shores, because they arc stepping-stones to Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and northern United States, including the great industrial centres of the north-east and middle west. “Equally, the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, if occupied or controlled by Germany, would directly endanger the freedom of the Atlantic and our own physical safety. Under German domination they would become bases forj submarines, warships and aeroplanes > raiding in waters which lie immediately off our coast and attacking shipping in the South Atlantic. They would provide a springboard for an actual attack against thci integrity and independence of Brazil and her neighbouring republics.