ICELAND OCCUPIED

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21217, 13 September 1940, Page 6

ICELAND OCCUPIED

BRITISH TROOPS WELCOMED STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, July 25 Early in the summer we quietly occupied Iceland, says William Hickey in the Daily Telegraph. The Icelanders were as surprised as anyone: “Why pick on us?” they said. “There’s nothing here but fish.” Most people here have forgotten about this occupation now, and it may seem a remote topic; but Iceland may yet be of strategic importance, and our Army of occupation is still there. The troops have settled down comfortably; the Icelanders—most of whom had never seen an armed soldier before—have taken to them well. Some 30 Icelandic ships are constantly bringing us fish. Seamen who have been to Hull and Grimsby c€m |speak soe English, make friends with our troops; housewives in the suburbs of Reykjavik took hot coffee to them when they were living under canvas, realising that they might find it cold. (In fact, Iceland is not a land oi ice and snow; it has about the same mean temperature as North Scotland. Chief hardship, in winter, is the black: daylight lasts only 5—6 hours. Just now, with the midnight sun, there is no darkness at all.) It took our men only a fortnight to drink all Iceland stocks of beer. This isn’t as bad (or good) as it sounds. Icelandic beer is practically non-alcoholic. German Interest Germans were beginning to take an interest in Iceland before the war. Some of their scientists were surveying it geologically. Other “scientists”—Nazi hacks—were congratulating Icelanders on being pure Aryans. Sounder scientists, from America, found that Icelanders’ closest relatives were the Scots and Irish. There were about 100 Germans in Reykjavik when war broke out —seamen and shopkeepers mostly, as elsewhere well organised by the Nazis. Dr.Gerlach, German consul, was a Nazi big-shot; few regretted his departure (except some children who had been invited by his llyear-old daughter to her birthday party that day). Only one English book was found in his big library: Douglas Reed's “Insanity Fair.”