Lögberg-Heimskringla - 18.10.1973, Síða 2

2
LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 18. OKTÓBER 1973
Höijberg-?|Etmökringla U/iHlö it m iEnitiuiii
TWO POINTS OF VIEW — The lcelandic Point of View
This week Ihe Icelandic poinl of view regarding Iceland's
dispuled 50-mile fishing limiis is presenied on ihis page
by Mr. Lofiur Bjarnason. professor of Governmenl and
* Humaniiies ai ihe U- S. Naval Poslgraduate School, Moni-
erey, California.
4
The Briiish poini of view was presenied lasi week by Mr.
Mark W. Janis. He is a graduale of Princelon and Oxford
universiiies wiih degrees in Inlernaiional Relaiions and
Jurisprudence. He is an inslructor in Hisiory and Politics al
ihe Naval Posigraduaie School, Monierey, California.
On the moming of 26 May
1973, it was announced on
the radio that the British
trawler EVERTON was sink
ing after having been fired
upon by an Icelandic „gun-
boat.“ Later it was admitted
that the trawler was not sink
ing after all, it was merely
listing. The „gunboat“ tum-
ed out to be the AEGIR, a
little coastal patrol vessel
whose main duty is to pre-
vent foreign and domestic
fishermen from dropping
their nets and poaching too
close to the shore.
The following day the news
papers stated that one of the
members of Parliament, out-
raged at this attack upon the
British fishing fleet, had urg-
ed that Great Britain, in
order to assert her right to
fish in Icelandic waters, send
a portion of her navy to pro-
tect the trawlers. According
to . the newspaper reports,
Prime Minister Ölafur Jó-
hannesson of Iceland mini-
mized the entire incident
and in a low key stated that
it was merely routine polic-
ing of the fishing waters. He
admitted that it had done so
only after using every other
means of attempting to pro-
hibit the trawler from con-
tinuing its illegal poaching.
He then suggested that if
Great Britain were to send
her navy against Iceland, it
would be the first time in the
history of the North Atlant-
ic Treaty Organization —
(NATO) that one nation had
used her armed might again-
st a fellow member nation-
He even intimated that such
an action, if taken, might
cause Iceland to denounce
her membershíp in NATO.
One can only guess how
many people must have ask-
ed themselves how it was
that such a routine minor
police action suddenly be-
came an international probl-
em whish threatened to
divide the forces that pro-
vide peace and security to
the Western European nati-
ons-
Those who enjoy history
can point to any number of
occasions when an incident
— minor In itself — has
caused cataclysmic repercuss
ions. — Ceasar’s crossing of
the Rubicon, for example —
an insignificant event in it-
self — brought about a com-
plete revolution in the gov-
ernment of the Roman
world.
Let us return to the inci-
dent of the British trawler
EVERTON and the Icelandic
patrol vessel and see what
caused the actions taken on
both sides. In order to under-
stand the situation complet-
ely, we must look briefly at
the history of Iceland and
then consider what the fish-
ing industry contributes to
her economy.
First of all it is important
to know that the Icelanders
are an extremely intelligent,
cultured, and sophisticated
people, 208,000 in all and as
cosmopolitan in outlook and
thinking as any nation on
the face of the earth. The
island was settled between
874 and 930 by emigrants
from Norway plus a strong
admixture from the British
Isles. Alarmed at the threat
of tyranny on the part of the
young Harald The Fair Hair-
ed, who was seeking to force
all of Norway to accept him
as their absolute ruler, many
of the solíd landowners de-
cided to flee to the newly
discovered Iceland rather
than lose their independence
and grovel like slaves at the
feet of a tyrant. They main-
tained this fierce spirit of
independence after arriving
in Iceland, for in 930 they
established the Allhing. This
was a legislative and judici-
al assembly of free and inde-
pendent men, meeting in
June of each year at the
famous and picturesque —
Thingvellir — about 30 miles
northeast of the present-
day capital city of Reykja-
vik. The Althing was the
supreme legislative body of
a democratic people and all
men were expected to honor
and obey the law, before
which all men were equal-
With such a tradition to in-
spire them, is it any wonder
that the modern Icelanders
i it difficult to bow to
y possible threat of intimi-
dation even from such a
great power as Great Britain
or the United States?
Since Iceland was settled
principally from Norway, it
is not at all surprising that
the language spoken by the
colonists was Old Norse - the
language spoken in Norway
in the tenth century. That
which is surprising, however
is that whereas modern Nor-
wegian differs greatly from
Old Norse, modem Icelandic
is so similar to the ancient
language that any school
child today can and does
read and enjoy the old sagas
written in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries- Speak-
ing of reading, it is possibly
worth mentioning that the
Icelanders publish and read
more books, magazines, and
papers per capita than any
other country in the world.
Between 500 and 600 new
book titles appear each year
and the editions often run
up to 6,000 to 7.000 copies. —
This is an amazing number,
considering the population.
It would be equivalent to an
edition of 7,000,000 in the
United States. Moreover, the
Icelanders import books and
magazines from almost ev-
ery country in the world. —
Swedish, Danish, German,
English, French, Itahan, and
even Russian papers and
periodicals are to be found
at any of the newsstands in
Reykjavik. They are not
merely for show, the Iceland
ers actually do read these
various languages, for their
educational system is exc-
ellent. — Everyone attends
school until he reaches the
age of fourteen, most stud-
ents remain in school for at
least three or four years
longer, and great numbers
spend at least a year or two
abroad to complete their
education.
Reykjavik, the capital city
of approximately 85,000 is as
up-to-date as any city in the
world. It might be caJled the
city of concrete, for most of
the public buddings, the ap-
artment houses, and even
the private houses are built
of prestressed concrete or
cement blocks. The whole
city is heated by utilizing
the geothermal energy of the
near-by hot springs. Reykja-
vik and indeed all of Iceland
has good, clear, pollution-
free air. T*he standard of liv-
ing is amazingly high — per-
haps as high as any in the
world-
This, of course, brings up
the obvious question: What
allows a p>eople living júst
outside the Arctic circle in
a country riddled with vol-
canoes, having few or no nat-
ural resources, and little
possibility of industry to
maintain such a high stand-
ard of living? The answer
can be given in a single
word: FISH! Between 85 and
90 per cent of Iceland’s for-
eign trade balance is from
the sale of fish and fish by-
products, i.e., fish oil and fer
tilizers. Farming is conduct-
ed in Iceland, to be sure. —
They raise a few vegetables,
but principally hay for the
sheep, cows, and horses. —
The hides of the horses, the
wool and the meat of the
sheep, and cheese from the
dairy herds are all exported
to a limited degree. Still,
these products do not com-
pare to fishing in producing
revenue for foreign trade. If,
by some ill quirk of fate, or
by gross mismanagement,
Iceland were to be deprived
of her annual catch of fish,
the standard of living would
drop immediately, and with-
in a short time everyone
would feel the pinch of pen-
ury. If it were prolonged, the
nation might face actual
starvation .All of this is, of
course, no secret to the Ice-
landers. — For many years
they have known precisely
what the fishing industry
meant in terms of their own
well-being and the part it
played in the national econ-
omy. For the last few years
they have been trying desp-
eratly to explain to other
nations how dependent they
are upon this one — and I
am tempted to say only —
resource. Iceland has no oil,
no coal, no iron, no copper, it
has no forests, the soil is
only moderatly fertile in
those few areas where farm-
ing is possible at all, and the
climate is antagonistic most
of the year. Briefly, the fish-
rich waters of the continent-
aj shelf surrounding the is-
land support the very life of
the people themselves-
In 1958 Iceland fought a
bloodless war with Great
Britain in which cod fish
were used as missiles instead
of bullets. The altercation
came about as the result of
Iceland’s insistance that in
order to avoid depletion of
the fishing grounds, a twelve
mile fishing limit must be
fmposed instead of the tradi-
tional three-mile limit. Ice-
land announced this limit on
the first of September, 1958.
English fishermen refused to
recognize this unilateral
move and continued to fisn
not only within the new
boundry but on many occas-
ions even within the traditi-
onal three-mile limit. The
Icelandic patrol boats repeat
edly tried to get the trawler
captains to obey the law but
usually without effect. —
Finally, they began to slice
through the waters immedi-
ately aft of the trawlers and
to cut the lines to the nets.
This procedure, of course,
infuriated the poaeher capt-
ains to the point that they
called upon their govem-
ment to send the British
navy to protect them. Mean-
while they hurled fish at the
Icelanders, wounding several
of the crew members.
After a number of such ex-
changes the Icelanders won
the support of most nations,
and the twelve-mile limit
was recognized. Unfortunat-
aly it was already too late,
it should have been imposed
and observed mamy years
earlier. For some time the
fishing grounds, especially
of the herring, had been de-
teriorating, that is, more and
more effort was required to
obtain fewer and fewer fish.
In 1967, the herring complet-
ely disappeared and have
not reappeared since in
commerciallly significant
numbers. This was a stagger-
ing blow to the Icelandic
economy, for the herring
represented approximately
one of the totai annual catch
(770.700 tons)- One can see
today seven years later ghost
villages on the southwest
coast of Iceland with rotting
buildings and rusting mac-
hinery that a scant 10 years
ago were thriving villages,
providing an exellent living
to thousands of people. —
Several theories have been
advanced to explain the dis-
appearance of the herring,
but the right answer is pro-
bably the obvious one. name-
ly, excessive and uncontroll-
ed fishing simply decimated
the species. There were not
enough left to reproduce, so
the specits are dying out, or
will die out if it is not pro-
tected.
Such things have happened
before. — At one time the
banks off the northeast coast
of the United States and
Newfoundland teemed with
what seemed to be inexhaiust
able numbers of fish. Many
a family in and around Bost-
Framhald á bls. 3.