The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-09-17
DECLARATION OF ELIMINATION

zone, (2) steaming to U. s. troops sta
toned at a British war base and was
(3) exchanging shots with submarine
and thus az creating an incident that
might force the nation into total war
was all a result of the PRESIDENT
own actions. Congress had not been
consulted about the establishment of
US. bases in Newfoundland, Green
land or Iceland, nor had congress
been consulted about the policy Of
taking all necessary steps to keep this
route clear.
Little Red Riding Hood
Since national policy" is the shib-
boleth on which the Presidents pol
icy based, it was essential that the
Greer incident be presented to Amer
leans with an air of injured innocence.
All in the world the Greer was doing
was carrying mail to American boys
waiting in Iceland for word from their
loved ones The Presidents little al
legory leaves the impression that the
Greer was as artless as Little Red
Riding Hood. The memory of the
last war and the stubborn refusal of
Americans to get excited about that
ancient hoax, freedom of the SEAS"
apparently will make such attempts
at deception futile.
Certain hard realities must be con-
sidered to bring the Greer incident
into proper focus. The underlying
reality is that there is a war going
on in Europe and that Iceland is a
base held by one of the belligerents.
When the President sent troops to
Iceland he said they would replace
British forces ostensibly because
these forces were needed elsewhere.
OF course, no figures can be expected,
but it is possible that there are today
more, not fewer, British forces in Ice
land. The Associated Press, in a dis
patch from Iceland passed by British
American censorship Sept. 5, reports:
1.-THE Icelandic force of British, Amer
lean and Norwegian soldiers, sailors
and airmen is larger than the number
Of trained troops available to repel
III Ill DllIdlu Ill tuO oultiACi VI
1870"
The same AP story, which was one
Of the first sent after the President
lifted the ban ON foreign correspond
With Anglo-American Forces in Ice
and" indicated how closely the
armed forces of the two nations were |
operating: Coastal aircraft of the |
Raj. and fighter commands fly wing |
and wing with Tomahawks of the
United States Army Air Corps. Des-
rogers and larger-men-of-war of the |
United States Navy patrol waters of
he North Atlantic and along the
coasts of Greenland in company with |
ships of the Royal Navy" Gin an
,ther story the same day, the AP re-
ported that officers of the Greer "dis-
closed that British aircraft assisted
he Greer in repelling the attacker.") +
The dispatch then points to the OBJ
viOus danger: There is always the
possibility of large scale raid which
would seek to destroy airfields and
+. :" Whatever may be
laid about the "illegality" under inter-
law of the attack on the
sreer it obviously would not be ell
egaT" for the nazis to bomb the
Forces" in Iceland
A sentence in a special cable to
he New York Times from London,
'ept. 6, provides further evidence:
1t has been impossible for American
correspondents for many weeks to tell
he story of the extent to which the
american patrol has been keeping the
ca lanes open for British shipping"
legal Mahoola
With U. S. armed forces flying and
nd sailing alongside British fighting
orces, it is hardly appropriate for the