Danes May Oppose Ceding Greenland Bases To America

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22888, 7 March 1949, Page 5

Danes May Oppose Ceding Greenland Bases To America

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.) (10 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 6. A request by the United States for military bases on Greenland will be the main stumbling block when the Danish Foreign Minister,. M. Rasmussen, discusses the possibility of Denmark’s participation in the Atlantic Union m Washington this week, says Reuter’s correspondent in Copenhagen.

The Danish Ambassador in Washington is believed to have reported that the United States will seek the right to hire military bases on Greenland, mainly for radar installations for 20 oi 30 years. M. Rasmussen and the Danish Government are expected to fight hard before making this concession.

Danish public opinion is extremely sensitive to the presence of United States officials now stationed on her Greenland "colony.” With the Danish-American talks impending. and Norway preparing for full participation in the Atlantic Pact, some Scandinavian newspapers have warned that Russia would intensify her war of nerves against the Nordic countries. This is expected to confirm Sweden in her neutrality and strengthen the small, stubborn anti-Atlantic Pact groups in Norway and Denmark. It is also expected to cause apprehension in Finland, where the Prime Minister, M. Fagerholm, is busy preparing to replace his all Social Democrat Cabinet —attacked by the Russian press during the past few weeks —by a coalition. including the Communists.

Sweden is expected to resist any Russian pressure as tenaciously as she opposed the proposal to 'link the stillborn Scandinavian Union with the Atlantic Pact.