AMERICAN ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1941, Page 5

AMERICAN ACTION

NAVAL FORCES ESTABLISHED IN ICELAND Announcement by President Roosevelt SAFEGUARDING THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE EVENT WELCOMED BY BRITISH GOVERNMENT LONDON, July 7. President Roosevelt has informed Congress in a special Message that United States naval forces landed in Iceland today. He said they would supplement and eventually replace the British forces stationed there. Mr Roosevelt added that the United States could not permit the occupation by Germany of strategic outposts which might be used as a base for an attack on the Western Hemisphere. America desired to see no change in the sovereignty of the islands. The United States had already taken similar steps in Greenland. A German occupation of Iceland would constitute a serious threat to Greenland, the northern portion of North America, and to shipping in the North Atlantic. A British Foreign Office spokesman stated that this was big news and welcome news. It was regarded in London as one of the most important events for some time past. In London it is hold that the decision is a logical development of the policy which President Roosevelt enunciated when Greenland was occupied and was taken as a measure necessary to safeguard the Western Hemisphere. It lessened the chance of a German occupation of Iceland at a time when Britain had enormous commitments against German aggression in the east.