A SHOCK FOR THE STATESMAN

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 214, 19 August 1931, Page 5

A SHOCK FOR THE STATESMAN

i YOUNG MAN PLANTS HIS KING'S FLAG ON DISPUTED COUNTRY AN ARCTIC. ESCAPADE Norway and Denmark are at loggerheads about the ownership of the desolate Arctic wastes of East Greenland. Denmark says that it belongs to her on the ground that she owns all Greenland. Norway says that it belongs to her on the ground that East Greenland was discovered by a Norwegian, named Eirik Raude. The statesmen of the two countries have been discussing the dispute—in. the way that statesmen do. Now their discussions have been rudely interrupted. For a young Norwegian trapper named Halvard Devoid, with five young men companions, has occupied East Greenland in the name of the King of Norway and planted the Norwegian flag there. Halvard Devoid is a tall, slim, goodlooking young man, who earns a livelihood in East Greenland by trapping fish. He is an ardent Norwegian patriot; and he deeply resents that the nationality of the man who toil endlessly in East Greenland to force this desolate tract to yield up its wealth and who bear the hideous discomforts of an Arctic winter should be decided at the whim of politicians. All Eyes on Greenland He hopes by his dramatic move to turn the eyes of his fellow Norwegians to this lonely outpost and to make impossible the surrender of one iota of their claims. . In the first of these wishes he has succeeded. While the old men are shaking thejlr heads gravely over this precipitate youthful coup, the bulk of public opinion is rapidly mobilising in his support The Danes on their side are equally incensed. , What will the Norwegian Government do? Will they disown their young hero? Or will they be forced by popular clamour to support his claim! Nobody knows yet. But Norway and Denmark alike are waiting to learn tha answers.