Sunday Post - 03.11.1940, Blaðsíða 2

2
SUNDAY POST
SUNDAY POST
is issued by S. Benediktsson
publisher of Daily Post.
Office: AlbySuprentsmiSjan
h.f. Teleph. 4905. Reykjavik.
Sunday, Nov. 3rd 1940.
Greek to them.
The Anneal Hold-fever in Iceland.
The Italians have obviously
been taken by surprise that
Greece did not accept their
proposals and place herself
under the protection of the
Axis Powers. Without doubt
they have thought that it would
be as easy to cow the Greeks
as for their dear friends and
allies to intimidate the Rou-
manians and the King of Bul-
garia.
So far the Italian army has
not much to be proud of. Of
course they defeated unarmed
and untrained Abyssinians, but
in Spain the invincible Italian
columns were routed by the
Republican workers. The Itali-
an fleet has almost never ven-
tured out of harbour since June
last, despite the loud claims
that the Mediterranean is an
Italian sea. And now the Itali-
an troops in Albania, more nu-
merous and better equipped
than their opponents, are beat-
en back along the whole front.
Those descendants of the old
Romans do not seem to be
worthy of their ancestors.
Italian planes raid undefend-
ed Greek towns, concentrating
on the civil population. Even
Athens, with her invaluable
treasures, has not been spared.
It will be recalled how Musso-
lini hastened to declare that
Rome was an undefended town
when he stabbed France in the
back in June last. He did not
want enemy bombers over
Rome — but he does not hesi-
tate to bomb Athens.
The Albanians who, accord-
ing to the Italian news, were
so eager to place themselves
under Italian protection have
revolted. All Italian efforts to
develop hatred of Greeks in
Albania have failed.
Hitler’s puppets in Rome as-
sert that in a world where
strength prevails over weak-
ness, the weak must perish.
They maintain that strength is
the only law of nature, there
are no others, they say. But
they can’t understand why
small nations dare to resist
their overwhelming force. That
is “Greek to them”.
There are, in the world’s
history, famous cases of
gold-fever, following dis-
coveries of gold in various
parts of the globe, with con-
sequent far-reaching chang-
es in the economic structure
of these respective regions.
Whereas the gold-fevers of
Australia, of South Africa, of
California or that of Alaska
happened at long intervals,
there exists in this country a
similar phenomenon, though on
a diminutive scale, which re-
peats itself every year. The si-
milarity is due to the presence
of the element of uncertainty
and the craving of human na-
ture for getting quickly rich.
This is the herring industry,
and it must be said at once, that
the above description must be
modified. Every year from the
end of June to the beginning of
September, the herring appear
in enormous shoals off the nor-
thern coast of Iceland. There
are only some 25 years, since
the herring industry came into
existence, and it was in its in-
fancy that it was a notoriously
risky enterprise. It has since
then undergone rapid changes,
and is now by far the greatest
mechanized industry in Ice-
land. In the beginning the her-
ring was only salted and ex-
ported in barrels. At a later
stage the herring oil and meal
factories grew up, and on them
now depends the whole indus-
try. When the Icelandic fisher-
men first began to catch her-
ring, their fishing gear was
primitive, and consequently
the catch was small. On the
other hand, it was of no use to
bring huge catches ashore, as
there were no possibilities of
utilizing it, except that sort of
it which was absolutely fresh
and could be salted. This state
of affairs created the need for
factories. When they came,
they again afforded new possi-
bilities, and the scope for
greater catches was greatly in-
creased. There has since been
a steady improvement both in
the fishing gear and in the fac-
tories’ equipment, so the her-
ring industry has in recent
years grown up into a large
is though inharent in the her-
is though inherent in the her-
ring itself, because nobody
knows beforehand how the her-
ring will behave the next sea-
son, whether It will be abun-
dant or very scarce.
FEVERISH ACTIVITY.
The outstanding feature of
this industry is the feverish ac-
tivity which prevails through-
out the season. Another feature
is the competitive spirit in all
stages. At the beginning of the
season, all and sundry connec-
ted with the industry, from the
lowest to the highest, get in-
fected with this herring fever.
Everybody works at high pres-
sure. The fishermen work day
and night, those engaged in the
curing are ready at every hour
of the day. At the busiest time
of the season they work as long
as they can endure without
sleep. The factories have their
shifts, and the engines do not
stop until everything is finish-
ed. The time is extremely va-
luable, and a loss of one single
hour, might mean a great loss
of money.
THE CATCHING OF THE
HERRING:
Of all the fisheries carried
on in this country, the herring
fishery is the most exciting.
From the outset of a fishing
trip, everybody is on the alert.
The method of fishing is such,
that every vessel has two smal-
ler boats which they carry. In
each boat there is a net of some
160 fathoms long and 25—30
fathoms deep. When a herring
shoal is sighted, you row out
from the vessel in these boats,
throw the net around the shoal
and close it in. If you are lucky,
you can get enormous quantity
of herring from a single shoal.
It has happened that a crew
has loaded its ship from a
single shoal, or got as much as
150 tons. If you happen to be
asleep when a shoal is sighted,
you have got to be quick. In a
couple of minutes the small
boats have left the ship, and
shame upon you if you miss
them! There are other boats
rowing out for the same shoal,
so if you want to get anything
you must act quickly. Besides
the material gain of a large
catch, there is a certain pride
in being a member of the crew,
which got the biggest aggregate
catch during the season, and
everybody wants to be at the
top.
The greatest part of the total
catch goes to the factories. In-
side those, you find the same
kind of competitive spirit. Your
shift must do better than the
other shifts, and your factory
must do better than the other
factories. The aggregate capa-
city of the factories is now
thousands of tons a day. They
turn this beautiful fish of shin-
ing silver into valuable product
of glimmering gold.
Last season was unusually
good. The total catch amounted
to hundreds of thousands of
tons and would have been still
bigger, had normal conditions
prevailed. It may give an idea
of the magnitude of this catch,
that if all the herrings caught
were made up into a line, one
after another, that line would
be six times longer than the
Equator, or they would make a
sixfold row round the earth on
Equator!
Stop me if you’ve heard it before.
CALLED OVER COALS.
Mother (to small son who has
returned home with an old
bucket full of coal): “I hope you
didn’t steal that coal?”
“Oh, no, I just sat on the rail-
way hank and made faces at
the engine drivers.”
Two beis. They were a sly pa-
ir, the cashier and the waitress.
One day, however, they met their
match. A man called for his bill,
and upon receiving it added it
up and found that he had been
charged a shilling too much.
“How does this come about?"
he asked, looking sharply at the
waitress.
“Well, you see, sir," she rep-
lied, “the cashier bet me half a
crown that you wouldn’t see it
land I bet him you would".
With a smile the customer
wrote something on the back of
the bill, folded it and said:
“Take that to the cashier".
She did so, and on opening it
the two were startled to read:
“I’ll bet five pounds that I shall
not be here when you get back”.
And he was not.
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