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EA-Greenland-Spitsbergen, General

(Max J. Dunbar)

GREENLAND DURING AND SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR

        Greenland is a Danish colony and the largest island in the world. It is

Denmark's last remaining overseas possession and one of which Denmark is justly

proud. Danish policy in Greenland is aimed at developing the population and

the country to a condition of final independence (which is, however, still a

very long way in the future); and the significance of the occurrences during

the second world war is that a vitally important and impressive step in this

direction was made during those years. Isolation from the mother country caused

the seeds sown long before, prepared through generations of almost imperceptible

germination, to spring suddenly to view. In terms of biological time, Greenland

traversed a longer period in five years than she had done in the preceding fifty.

        The most recent official announcement on the history, constitution, and

economy of Greenland is the 1949 "Report on Greenland" to the United Nations

(Greenland Administration 1949). Covering the wartime years are several publi–

cations in Danish, including Gad's Grønland under Krigen (1945) and Vibe's Ene

ligger Grønland (1946). Vinding's Grønland 1945 (1946) is a general statement

for the popular market of present-day Greenland conditions. A new history of

Greenland has recently been published by Gad (1946), and a short ecological

study of the Greenland resources, people, and livelihood, including the wartime

period, has been produced by Dunbar (1947). A statement of future possibilities

and aspirations in Greenland is contained in Prime Minister Hedtoft's address

to the Greenland Assembly ("Parliament" or "Landsraad") made in 1948 (Hedtoft

002      |      Vol_XIV-0041                                                                                                                  
EA-Greenland-Spitsbergen, General. Dunbar: Greenland During & Since World War II

1949). Finally a rich source of contemporary material on the wartime life in

Greenland is the semimonthly journal Grønlandsposten , written, edited, and

printed in Greenland. Grønlandsposten first appeared in 1942, and has been

continued since the war. It is from these sources, together with the writer's

own wartime experience in Greenland, that the present article has been derived.

        Greenland lies between latitudes 59° 46′N. and 83° 39′N., and stretches

over arctic and subarctic zones. The total area is calculated at 2,182,000

square kilometers, of which 1,869,000 are covered by permanent inland ice, the

last great icecap remaining in the north. The ice-free terrain in mountainous

and deeply indented with the largest fjord system in the world; some of the

fjords are over 1,000 meters in vertical depth. The coast line is liberally

dotted with skerries and small islands. The land offers almost no possibility

of cultivation of grain crops, but hay can be grown in the southwest and a small

sheep-farming industry has been established there.

        Lime most Eskimo areas, the native economy is based very largely upon the

resources of the sea. The traditional livelihood of the country is seal hunting,

but the population has increased so rapidly, and the seal numbers have decreased

so drastically owing to the damage done to the populations of migrant seals in

Newfoundland, and also to certain recent hydrographic changes (see below), that

the emphasis has perforce swung from seal hunting to fishing, which is now by

far the most important industry in Greenland, to the native Greenlander.

        The development of the maritime fishery has been rapid, and has been made

possible by spectacular changes in the hydrography of the Greenland waters in

the past thirty to thirty-five years. These changes are part of a general warm–

ing of the marine and atmospheric climates of the northern areas, involving a

strengthening of the Gulf Stream and Atlantic Drift circulation and a retreat

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EA-Greenland-Spitsbergen, General. Dunbar: Greenland During and Since Second World

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of the polar water and ice distribution (Jensen 1939, Dunbar 1946). In Green–

land, the Irminger Current, a branch of the Atlantic Drift which turns westward

at the level of Iceland and mixes with the East Greenland Polar Current around

Cape Farewell, has increased in volume and apparently also in temperature, re–

sulting in a very marked warming of the West Greenland Current. This effect be–

gan to make itself felt about 1917, and was accompanied by associated changes in

the marine fauna of West Greenland. In particular, Atlantic cod ( Gadus callarias )

and Atlantic halibut ( Hippoglossus vulgaris ), especially the former, began to ap–

pear in increasing numbers over the West Greenland banks and in the inshore fjord

waters. The total production of salted fish from West Greenland has grown from

28 metric tons in 1915-16, to 5,661 metric tons in 1947-48 (Greenland Administra–

tion 1949). East Greenland produces no salt cod. The East Greenland waters are

dominated by the cold polar current, and have a totally different fauna from most

of the west coast. Southwest Greenland produces considerably more fish than does

the northwest coast (the division, administratively, between the two being placed

between the Holsteinsborg and Egedesminds districts).

        Greenland's most valuable single resource is the cryolite mine at Ivigtut,

in the southwest. It is the only cryolite mine in the world, and its production

commands a high price. The Danish Government holds 50% of the shares of the com–

pany which now operates the mine, the "Cryolite Company øresund," formed in 1940.

The cryolite minehas been producing commercially since 1856, and its output grew

steadily up to the second world war. Exports rose sharply in the late 1930's, to

56,455 tons in 1939. (Greenland Administration 1943). The demand for cryolite

continued to increase during the first years of the war, and a peak of production

was reached in 1942, when over 90,000 tons were shipped to Canada and the United

States. The o utput has since fallen off considerably, and the market has steadied.

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        The importance of cryolite to the economy of Greenland is very great, the

profit from the mine having for many years made good, more or less, the deficit

of the rest of the colonial enterprises.

        The population of Greenland has grown from 6,046 in 1805 to 21,827 in 1947

(Greenland Administration 1949). The 1947 figures for West Greenland were 20,405,

and for East Greenland 1,422. The population is thus strongly concentrated on

the west coast. West Greenland is divided, for purposes of administration, into

"North Greenland" (from Thule south to, and including, the Egedesminde district),

and "South Greenland" (from the Holsteinsborg district south to Cape Farewell).

In the present article the terms "north" and "south" Greenland are used in this

sense, referring, that is, to the west coast only. The third administrative

division is "East Greenland," comprising the populated part of the east coast

from Cape Farewell north to Scoresby Sound.

        The history of modern Greenland begins in 1721, when Hans Egede landed

at the mouth of Godthaab Fjord. In 1728, Godthaab settlement was founded, also

by Hans Egede. Colonization in East Greenland began in 1894 at Angmassalik,

and in 1924 a new settlement was established in East Greenland, at Scoresby

Sound. The Greenland trade was for some years in the 18th century maintained

by private interests, but in 1774 the Danish Government took over the control

and all economic operations have since been carried on by a state monopoly, at

least up to the most recent postwar years (see below). Related to this monopoly

trade, and also in the interests of the gradual development of the population,

culturally and economically, Greenland was removed from free contact with the

world outside. All visitors to the country were either Government officials, in

the Greenland Service, or bona fide scientific investigators traveling with the

permission of the Greenland Administration. The responsible administration of

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EA-Greenland-Spitsbergen, General. Dunbar: Greenland During & Since Second World

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the colony is in Copenhagen, acting through two Landsfogeder or Administrators

resident in Greenland, one in south Greenland, at Godthaab, the other in north

Greenland, at Godhavn.

        It is against this background of history, resources, and administration

that the wartime events in Greenland must be understood.

        Denmark was invaded by the Germans in April 1940, and, on April 9, Green–

land found itself suddenly cut off from its administration in Copenhagen and

from its source of supplies. Fortunately, anticipating difficulty in supply–

ing Greenland under wartime conditions, the Administration had seen to it that

a double shipment of all necessary foodstuffs and materials was shipped to cer–

tain districts the previous year, so that the necessity of establishing other

sources of supply was not so immediate as it might have been. Nevertheless,

the situation called for speedy action.

        The two Landsfogeder or Administrators, Axel Svane in south Greenland and

Eske Brun in north Greenland, announced at once that all necessary steps to

ensure the continued Greenland economy would be taken. On April 16 they an–

nounced further that they had been in radio contact with the Danish Minister

in Washington, Henrik de Kauffmann, and that negotiations to provide for the

material needs of Greenland had been opened. As for the administration of the

colony in isolation from Denmark, such a state of emergency as that of April 1940

was allowed for in the 1925 Constitution of Greenland, in which paragraph 3 of

Article 10 reads as follows:

        "The Administrators, as the representatives of the Danish Government

in Greenland, are to be considered the responsible authority in the

country and can in exceptional instances ( overordentlige tilfaelde )

take such measures as the interests of the population may demand."

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EA-Greenland-Spitsbergen, General. Dunbar: Greenland During & Since Second World

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        Telegraphic communication between Denmark and Greenland had not at that

time been completely stopped, and the Greenland Administration was able itself

to refer the Administrators in Greenland to the above Article 10. On April 23,

Brun and Svane officially took over the administration of Greenland; for the

first time since the medieval Norse republic in Greenland, Greenland was adminis–

tered by a responsible government within the country itself.

        Meanwhile de Kauffmann had been busy in the United States. An "American

Danish Greenland Commission" was set up on his initiative, designed to take care

of the purchasing of supplies for Greenland, and the securing of North American

markets for Greenland products. Denmark, the United States, and Canada were

represented on this commission. From the Greenland side, the Landsraad of south

Greenland met its fellow body from north Greenland (for the first time in history)

at a joint meeting at Godthaab, to discuss necessary measures in Greenland. The

joint meetings continued each year for the remainder of the war. The American

Danish Greenland Commission was later dissolved, to be supplanted by the "Green–

land Delegation" in New York. This body was formed when Eske Brun, in the spring

of 1940, left for a visit to North America together with a selected body of

Greenland experts in various fields (radio, cryolite mine, mechanical equipment,

etc.). On June 3, 1940, the cryolite mine was placed under the authority of the

administration at Godthaab. Greenland's whole trade was thus unified under one

authority, with a permanent body in New York (Greenland Delegation) in charge

of details of purchasing and marketing. The exchange rate was fized at five

Danish (Greenland) kroner to the U.S. dollar. The administration was central–

ized at Godthaab, so that the division of the west coast into two administrative

portions was temporarily abolished. In the summer of 1941, Administrator Axel

Svane left Greenland for New York, to take over the leadership of the Greenland

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Delegation, and Eske Brun remained at Godthaab as head of the Administration

in Greenland, in which position he continued for the whole of the wartime emer–

gency. A new post, that of Trade Inspector, was set up at Godthaab, with Axel

Malmquist as its incumbent. Under Malmquist's leadership the production of

Greenland, especially in the fishery, was considerably increased, and the normal

life of Greenland was resumed with no serious shortages in the importation of

supplies. Rationing of certain staple foods was introduced in 1943.

        The occupation of Denmark by the Germans, and their offensive in Norway,

called forth a quick response from the United Kingdom, who immediately filled

the "strategic vacuum" (Gad 1945) in the Faeroe Islands and in Iceland. Simil–

arly, Greenland became an immediate matter of concern to both Canada and the

United Kingdom, the two belligerent powers, and to the United States, still

non-belligerent. From inside Greenland, during those shaky months of 1940, al–

most anything was expected, and the whole picture was very obscure. To quote

Gad: "We had no idea what might happen. We in Greenland awaited without anxiety

the arrival of either the British or the Canadians, who could legally have under–

taken the occupation of strategically important points on the island...... The

worst we could expect from the German side was the destruction of the cryolite

mine, which would have been catastrophic.... The danger from Germany appeared,

as time went by, to become less and less, because Germany would not wish to pro–

voke the U.S.A. to a declaration of war by undertaking action in an area which

falls within the terms of the Monroe Doctrine."

        The Monroe Doctrine applied as well, it appeared, to any possible action

by the United Kingdom, and also ( sic ) to any Canadian military action in Green–

land. It fell to the United States, although not at war, to undertake the pro–

tection of the Greenland shores, including the cryolite mine. Two things were

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recognized by all three powers, first the necessity of guaranteeing the sover–

eignty of Denmark in Greenland, and second the great strategic importance of

Greenland. The prewar flights over the Greenland icecap had not been forgotten.

As a base for short-hop flights from North America to northwest Europe, and for

the protection of the North Atlantic shipping lanes, Greenland was vitally im–

portant. Hardly less important was the contribution which Greenland weather

information could make to forecasting in Europe. The repeated (and successful)

efforts of the Germans to establish meteorological stations in northeast Green–

land were witness enough of this importance. Lastly to both Canada and the

United States the importation of cryolite from Greenland in increasing quantities

was essential for the defense industries, especially the manufacture of aircraft.

        From May 1940 the cutters and smaller craft of the U.S. Coast Guard were a

common sight along the coasts of Greenland, and in the settlement harbors. Four–

teen coast guardsmen were discharged at Ivigtut and immediately reorganized in–

to a police guard for the mine — not a serious obstacle for an enemy demolition

party with serious intentions. No such party, however, arrived.

        In order to facilitate negotiations in both military and civil affairs, the

United States and Canada opened consulates in Greenland. On May 22, 1940, the

Coast Guard Cutter Comanche arrived at Godthaab with the United States Consul

and Vice Consul on board. On June 4, the Greenland ship Julius Thomsen reached

Ivigtut, after an eventful voyage from Denmark during which she had been taken

over by a British naval prize crew, carrying the Canadian Consul who had recent–

ly relinquished, perforce, his post in Holland. The Canadian Vice Consul had

already arrived on June 1, on board the Hudson's Bay Company vessel Nascopie ,

chartered by the Canadian Government for a special voyage to Greenland to bring

much-needed supplies. Both consulates were eventually built at Godthaab.

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        Quite apart from the usual consular functions concerned with trade, visas,

and so on, both consulates were in some sense diplomatic offices, in that they

were the only representation of the United States and Canada in Greenland, and

since Greenland had to be looked upon for the time being as a self-governing

country. The positions of the two consulates were not quite the same, for two

reasons of different orders. After 1941, when U.S. military bases were estab–

lished in Greenland, the work of the United States Consulate became more and

more taken up with military affairs, and came to be a most important link be–

tween the U.S. Army and Navy authorities in Greenland defense areas, and the

Administration at Godthaab. The Canadian Consulate had no such military de–

velopment to deal with, but on the other hand there was at that time no Danish

Minister in Ottawa, so that the Canadian Consulate in Greenland was the only

channel through which business and negotiations between Canada and Greenland

could be carried on. The Danish Minister in Washington, on the other hand,

was at all times available for discussion with the U.S. Government on Green–

land matters. This difference in function became more apparent when, in Nov–

ember 1941, the Greenland Delegation in New York became a division of the Dan–

ish Consulate-General (thus directly under the Danish Minister) and the Danish

Minister was recognized by the U.S. Department of State as the proper author–

ity and channel for United States-Greenland business.

        The United States-Greenland Defense Agreement was signed by Cordell Hull

and Henrik de Kauffmann on April 9, 1941. Such an agreement was a foregone

conclusion from the time of the invasion of Denmark one year before. In July

1940, at the Havana Conference, the United States had undertaken to defend the

Western Hemisphere against all outside invasion, or threat to alter the sover–

eignty of any part of it. The safety of Greenland was a matter of grave con-

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EA-Greenland-Spitsbergen, General. Dunbar: Greenland During and Since second

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cern to the Western Hemisphere in general, and demanded considerably greater

military action than had hitherto been taken. The ten articles of the treaty

assured the continued sovereignty of a free Denmark over Greenland; gave the

United States the right to build such bases and other installations as might

be necessary for the defense of Greenland, for the use of all American nations,

but stipulated that the defense areas were still Danish territory; and estab–

lished that the treaty should remain in force until it was agreed that the danger

for the peace and safety of the American continent was over.

        The news of the signing of this treaty was received with mixed feelings

in Greenland. It was a decisive breakdown of the traditional policy of the

"closed shore," and it was contrary to the spirit of neutrality so strong in

Scandinavia. But it was accepted as inevitable; and, indeed, the impact of the

military forces of a foreign nation upon the lives and economy of the native

Greenlanders was very much less than had been expected. The effect of direct

contact was limited almost entirely to a sharp increase in the price of native

handicrafts and souvenirs, and certain unimportant sociological difficulties in

some of the settlements of the southwest. In 1943 the defense areas and all

military outposts were declared out of bounds to the Greenlanders, by the God–

thaab Administration, and except for official purposes no army or navy personnel

were allowed to visit the settlements.

        Three air fields were constructed, two on the west coast and one on the

east, to be followed by a small emergency landing strip a few miles south of

Godthaab. There were various smaller stations, for weather reporting and for

the guarding of approaches to air fields; an army camp an [ ?] a naval fuelling

station were built close to the cryolite mine at Ivigtut. During flying opera–

tions over the icecap and along the rugged coasts of Greenland there were many

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EA-Greenland-Spitsbergen, General. Dunbar: Greenland During and Since Second

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casualties, and new techniques were evolved for search and rescue. At sea,

several ships were lost by enemy action, including the transport Dorechester ,

sunk by torpedo off southwest Greenland in the early part of 1943, carrying

military personnel and men from the Ivigtut mine. One Greenland vessel, the

Hans Egede was lost without trace on a voyage to the United States in February

1942. Another of the Greenland Administration ships, the Gortrud Rask , was

lost aground on the coast of Nova Scotia, but not by enemy action.

        A unique organization in wartime Greenland was the Northeast Greenland

Sledge Patrol, made up of Danish and Norwegian residents and expedition members

in that area, and a small number of native Greenlanders from the Scoresby Sound

settlement; altogether, at maximum strength, about 15 white men (most of them

Danes) and 4 Greenlanders. The numbers varied from year to year. The Patrol

was first formed in 1941, by the Greenland Administration, at the request of

the U.S. military command, to operate in the far northeast, north of Scoresby

Sound, and to report any enemy landings, weather stations, or suspicious find–

ings to the Greenland Base Command. This miniature army, sledge-mounted, was

the only group to engage the enemy actively on Greenland territory. In March

and April 1943 a German weather station was discovered on Sabine Island. The

Danish station at Eskimonaes was attacked at night by the German party, and the

small garrison was forced to retire. Another party of 3 Danes ran into the same

German party on the way south to base; one was killed and the other two taken

prisoner. One of them, Marius Jensen, managed to turn the tables on the enemy

and took the German commander, a naval lieut e nant, south to Scoresby Sound. The

remainder of the German party were later taken prisoner by American forces. For

this skillful piece of work Marius Jensen was decorated by both Canada and the

United States.

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        Interesting and specialized though the military operations in Greenland

were, they had little or no effect upon the Greenlanders or upon the Danish

population. The mere fact of isolation, however, and of government from with–

in, had a very marked effect upon the course of the history of the colonial de–

velopment. The imported supplies came first very largely from the United States,

but later came in increasing proportion from Canada; in 1942 most of the needed

commodities came from Canada. The arrival of these goods from foreign parts was

no doubt a stimulus in itself, and started an awareness of the world beyond the

limits of Greenland and Denmark, which hitherto had formed the horizon of vision

of the average Greenlander.

        The establishment of a responsible administration in Greenland was something

quite new for the Greenlanders. They looked upon the Godthaab administration,

rightly, as the trustees of the administration in Copenhagen, and as the highest

authority so long as Denmark was cut off from traffic with Greenland. There was

no reason for them to suppose, at first, that this would involve any change in

the mode of operation of the settlements, or any deviation from the slow-moving

development and life of the country. As the war years went by, however, it be–

came clear to the Greenlanders that things were not quite as they had been, and

that the tempo of life in Greenland had been raised considerably. By the end of

the war most of them were in no doubt about the advantages of the tighter wartime

organization and the greater efficiency which the exigencies of war had pressed

upon them.

        The far-reaching changes in Greenland during the second world war were thus

the result, not of the presence of foreign troops or the building of military

installations and air fields, but of the fact of the war itself, the isolation

from Denmark, and the performance of the interim administration at Godthaab. They

may be listed as follows:

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• 1. The Administration was able to make decisions without referring to
  
  Copenhagen. In the old days, the broad Atlantic functioned as a brake upon
  
  the course of events in Greenland. Communication for purpose of administra–
  
  tion was normally by sea, so that action on business might take several months.
  
  Such a leisurely system was apt to increase the disregard for time which life
  
  in Greenland fosters in the first place. Under wartime conditions, action on
  
  incoming requests, representations, and suggestions, could be taken within one
  
  day or one week, instead of the former one month or one year.
  
• 2. In spite of the necessarily tight organization of the wartime admin–
  
  istration, at a time when decisions had to be made quickly, there was generally
  
  a greater democracy in Greenland during the war than was possible under the
  
  normal "government-from-a-distance." Suggestions from the Danish and Greenlandic
  
  sections of the population were usually sure of a hearing, which does not seem
  
  to have been the rule before.
  
• 3. This resulted in two important psychological generations: a greater
  
  sense of individual responsibility and pride in performance, qualities which
  
  were apt to be somewhat deadened under the normal system; and a feeling of team–
  
  work, of playing a part in the development of the country, and of helping to
  
  maintain the Danish reputation in, and undisputed right to, the colony of Green–
  
  land.
  
• 4. There was a growing awareness among the Greenlanders (the Danes were
  
  of course aware of it already) that Greenland was of great strategic interest
  
  to the world powers, and a realization that what was happening might well happen
  
  again in the future. The war demonstrated to the Greenlanders, whether by hear–
  
  say or at first hand, the extent of the resources of one of those powers (the
  
  United States), and the changes which could be produced in a very short time in
  
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  their country by mechanized effort. Nothing like the new air fields and camps
  
  in Greenland had been dreamed of by the native population.
  
• 5. There followed a realization that the increasing difficulties of main–
  
  taining the closed shore of Greenland, which could be foreseen from present
  
  developments, were going to demand a new attitude on the part of the Greenlanders
  
  toward the world outside; and it became clear to them that their education was
  
  as yet inadequate for the formation of this new attitude. Discussions on educa–
  
  tion between Greenlanders, and between Greenlanders and Danes became more and
  
  more common during the war years, and opinions were expressed on desirable future
  
  policies on education which were seldom if ever heard before the war. Languages,
  
  science, and technology were the subjects most frequently mentioned as in need
  
  of expansion in the schools.
  
• 6. Various technical changes were made. The old seal-oil house lamps,
  
  which were prescribed by law before 1939, disappeared, to be replaced by bright
  
  kerosene lamps, and later, in several settlements, by electrification. Techni–
  
  cal advances of this kind, however, were due to come anyway, war or no war. But
  
  their arrival was hastened by the new conditions.
  
• 7. A new and more efficient method of importing and distributing supplies
  
  was introduced, made necessary by the scarcity and high cost of shipping. This
  
  involved the establishment of certain of the settlements as "transit" ports, at
  
  which supplies were landed from the ocean-going freighters, to be dis trib uted
  
  to other settlements by Greenland's own fleet of coastal schooners and motorboats.
  
  This was a considerable departure from the old system in which each settlement
  
  ( Koloni ) was visited each season by most of the Administration's larger vessels.
  
  It made more of a unit of the Greenland trade; it was clearly less expensive; and
  
  it put a greater onus on the coastal schooners, thus boosting the importance of
  
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  those excellent and most suitable vessels. The part played by the schooner and
  
  motorboat fleet during the war is one of the most arresting single facets of
  
  Greenland's wartime history.
  
• 8. Most important of all, as the advantages of the wartime organization
  
  became clear to the Greenlanders, there crystallized out of it a determination
  
  that the substance of these innovations should not disappear when the administra–
  
  tion of the country returned to Copenhagen. In short, there emerged during the
  
  second world war a wave of national feeling and solidarity which marked a turn–
  
  ing point in Greenland's career. This was not incompatible with the feeling of
  
  an even greater closeness to Denmark, which probably increased somewhat during
  
  these years.
  

        There is little more to be said here about events in Greenland from 1940

to 1945; there is little more that can be said without going into much greater

detail than space allows. Many Danish children went to school in the United

States and Canada, where under normal conditions they would have gone home to

Denmark. There was no lack of supplies and no material hardship. The cost of

importing the supplies increased, so that the Administration, following its

established policy of keeping prices in Greenland down, no doubt suffered larger

deficits in this respect than were normal. On the other hand, the export trade

boomed, and the prices received for cryolite, salted fish, animal oils, etc., went

up to unprecedented levels. The cod fishery was stimulated to continued increase

in volume, and in fact the most valuable cargoto leave the Greenland shores was

not a cryolite cargo from Ivigtut, but a cargo of some 2,300 tons of salt cod

taken by a Portuguese ship in 1944, at well over $200 per ton.

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Postwar Developments

        The Greenland Assembly ( Landsraad ) lost little time, as soon as the

German army withdrew from Denmark, in giving expression to the changes which

had taken place in the outlook and awareness of the Greenlanders during the

war. At the 1945 meeting, the following resolution was passed:

        "During the war the people of Greenland have learned the great sig–

nificance of having a central leadership in Greenland itself, and it

is therefore proposed that Greenland be administered from within the

country, that the two administrators' offices be unified to include

the whole of Greenland, and that the office be endowed with greater

authority than that given it by the present constitution.

        "It is desired that experts should be attached to the administra–

tor's office for the purpose of looking after the various branches of

administration. Greenland's highest officials should be endowed with

limited authority of allocation (of material, etc.) and right of dis–

position, embracing all Greenland activities.

        "It is suggested that the present division of the country be dis–

carded and that one Assembly, with greater authority, should be estab–

lished for the whole country.

        "There is an overwhelming opinion in favour of maintaining the

transit ports, with a special view towards making possible thereby the

long-needed coastal traffic for the advantage of the people of the

country.

        "An early alteration of the present constitution of the Greenland

Administration is considered to be demanded in the highest degree, and

amongst other things it is considered unreasonable that there should be

different regulations for the Danish and Greenlandic elements in the

same country." ( Grønlandsposten 1945).

        This bold if slightly confused statement aroused considerable interest in

the Danish press. One result of the general articulate attitude was the elec–

tion of a group of leading Greenlanders to be sent to Denmark to discuss the

Greenland problems with the Administration in Copenhagen, and with other Govern–

ment representatives. This delegation left Greenland in November 1945. The list

of matters for discussion was very complete and included all the internal matters

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touched upon in this article. It was not easy, at the time, to judge from

the press and other published reports just how the delegation was received;

but the general impression in Greenland was that the discussions were largely

a gesture on the part of the Administration, and that they were not intended

to be taken too seriously.

        However that may be, there is no doubt that the indications of policy pub–

lished in Greenland in the spring of 1946 were not favorable to the permanent

incorporation of the wartime changes. This impression was confirmed when the

final report of the conference was published ( Grønlandsposten 1946). The pro–

posal for a central, responsible administration within Greenland was turned down,

and the real issue at stake was evaded by handling this point as though synonymous

with the question of whether there should be one Administrator (as during th war)

or two (as before) in Greenland. The double administratorship was brought in

again. The question was, however, left open to the extent of a recommendation

that the present regulations governing the Greenland Landsraad and the administra–

torship should be brought up again for revision before the end of 1950. The Gov–

ernment trade monopoly was to be retained, likewise the policy of the closed shore.

(In an article in Grønlandsposten , Brun defended the monopoly as a means of buffer–

ing the colony against cycles of slump and boom which could do great harm if the

Greenland trade were in the hands of private companies (Brun 1946).

        Plans for the expansion of the fishery were approved, also the sheep farming

and the coal mining. No great changes were proposed in the educational field, al–

though the use of Danish as the language of instruction (a point which was strongly

advocated by the Greenlanders) was approved in general, and "where circumstances

allowed it." The biggest improvements were proposed for the medical service, in–

cluding the recommendation of the appointment of three more doctors (making about

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fifteen in all) and three more nurses; there were to be two dentists instead of

one. Two new hospitals were recommended on the east coast, and three more hos–

pitals were to be equipped with X-ray, making eight hospitals in all so equipped.

        The decisions of the conference were seriously criticized as being largely

ineffective, and because they showed no promise of encouraging initiative and

self-reliance on the part of the Greenlanders; the old paternalism had been re–

newed. These criticisms referred in particular to the educational and economic

fields, and to the fundamental point of the retention of all responsible govern–

ment in Copenhagen.

        This conference, however, was by no means the end of the story. Criticism

continued, both in Greenland and in the Danish press, and there seems to have

been a suggestion that the delegation of Greenlanders had been talked out of many

of the points which they had gone to Denmark to insist upon. The matter came to

a head at two meetings of the Greenland Society in Copenhagen in 1947. "It is

interesting to note that the opening speeches of both meetings were made by Green–

landers who most ably expressed the views of their countrymen. It speaks very well

for the 200 years of Danish administration of Greenland that the demands of the

Greenlanders, as voiced by these men, included nothing more revolutionary than a

strong demand to have the seat of the Greenland Administration removed from Copen–

hagen to Greenland where it should be directly responsible to a Danish Government

Department." (Porsild 1948). The Greenlanders also recommended at this meeting

that the monopoly should be ended, and that private Danish and Greenlandic enter–

prise should be allowed to operate in Greenland; and they included in their recom–

mendations all the rest of the points which the Landsraad had recommended in 1945

(see above). Clearly they had changed their minds back again to the original since

the report of the 1945-46 conference.

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        From then on matters moved swiftly and with a more distinguishable pattern.

In 1948, private fishing vessels from Denmark were allowed to operate in the in–

shore waters of West Greenland, provided they would agree to take young Green–

landers on board as pupils. The long-standing Government trade monopoly was thus

officially ended, at least experimentally and pending definite legislation; this

was obviously an omen of things to come.

        In the summer of 1948 the Danish Prime Minister, Hans Hedtoft, together

with the Director of the Greenland Administration, Knud Oldendow, and the Vice–

Director, Eske Brun (a post he assumed in 1948), visited Greenland and were pres–

ent at the joint sessions of the Landsraad of south and north Greenland, at God–

thaab, with Brun as chairman. The Prime Minister's address at this meeting was

a statement full of significance for the future of Greenland. On the question

of the lifting of the trade monopoly, Mr. Hedtoft pointed out that the 1945-46

conference had left the matter open; that the resources of Greenland should be

developed by all means possible in the interests of the Greenlanders; and that

in all probability the time had now come to expand these means to include the

operations of private Danish interests. He pointed out also that the Greenlandic

women had now been given the right to vote for their representatives in the Lands–

raad (in 1948), and that "the Greenland men now had the new and great task of

enlightening and leading the women in political matters" (Hedtoft 1949). He

asked for the opinion of the Landsraad on certain points, including the question

of monopoly, the matter of Danish and Greenlandic law, and the all-important

question of the location of the responsible government of Greenland and the pre–

cise relationship of Greenland and Denmark within the common community.

        The Landsraad replied, through Pastor Gerhard Egede of Frederikshaab, that

it approved of the endinf of Government trade monopoly, and that this should be

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effected by the permission of private Danish firms to operate in Greenland

under the control of the Danish Government. The Landsraad did not think that

Danish law was appropriate, as yet, for the Greenlanders in the present stage

of development, but steps should be taken to even out the present diff erences

between the civil rights of Danes and Greenlanders in Greenland. It did not

consider that the time was yet ripe for the representation of Greenland by a

Greenland member in the Danish Parliament, but that there should be Greenlandic

representation in the Parliamentary Committee on Greenland. Finally, it recom–

mended that a Commission should be set up in order to work out all the present

Greenland problems.

        The Commission, under the chairmanship of H. H. Koch, of the Ministry of

Social Affairs, was formed in the fall of 1948, and after a climax of what ap–

pear to have been ill-informed protests about the personnel and the proposed

work of the Commission ( Grønlandsposten 1949a), the Commission settled down to

its work and peace settled over Greenland once more.

        At the end of 1948, Enud Oldendow resi ng gn ed after many years as Director of

the Greenland Administration, to be succeeded by Eske Brun. It was a happy and

a foregone conclusion that Brun should take the post of Director, for it was his

activity and energy above that of any other one man that had brought about the

striking advances in Greenland since 1940. In the summer of 1949 the newly formed

Commission, or part of it, arrived in Greenland on a fact-finding tour on board

the Administration's new ship Umanak , and the Chairman, H. H. Koch, reported on

the progress made. It was proposed to unite the two administratorships, and to

form a central administration in Greenland with considerably greater authority

than the administrators had had before. Many of the advances already discussed

were accepted, and the Commission appeared to be well on the way to an alteration

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of the Greenland constitution as demanded by the Landsraad (Koch 1949).

        During these somewhat turbulent postwar years in Greenland's usually placid

history, the normal life and economy of the country have been developing. Dr.

Poul Hensen, in charge of fisheries research in Greenland, using his new research

vessel Adolf Jensen , found new trawling grounds for shrimps in the southwest,

and a new shrimp cannery was built. Other canneries are planned. A very im–

portant development concerning the fishery is the plan, at present in the study

stage, to concentrate the population into larger settlements (Greenland Adminis–

tration 1949), and to eliminate if possible some or most of the outlying hunting

and trading posts. The present scattered condition of the population is one of the

greatest handicaps under which the administration operates, for it greatly

increases the cost of processing and t ansporting the fish. The plans to con–

centrate the population, if realized, will simplify also the problems of general

transportation, medical care, and education throughout the country.

        Final figures of the 1949 catch in the cod fishery is not yet available to

the writer, but it is quite clear that the season has not been normal. The winter

of 1948-49 was exceptionally severe, and in the early spring the West Greenland

Current appears to have been unusually cold; codfish were reported to be found

dead in large numbers. In the course of the summer of 1949 the cod catch in the

southwest (Sukkertoppen and south) was good, but in the Holsteinsborg district

the season, at least in its first half, was a failure. Dr. Hansen is quoted in

Grønlandsposten (1949b) as describing the depressing situation in the Holsteins–

borg district, always one of the most important fishing areas in Greenland. In

1948, a little over 1,000 tons of fresh cod were bought by the fishing stations

in that district, whereas up to the beginning of July, in 1949, only 500 kilograms

were received, as against 500 tons at the same date in 1948. A similar situation

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is reported from the shrimp fishermen of the same district. Trawling in 1949

produced almost no shrimp at all.

        Weather information is one of Greenland's most important exports, of in–

terest to many countries, in peace as well as in war. The meteorological sta–

tions in Greenland, which were greatly multiplied during the war by the United

States Army, were taken over by Denmark for the most part, and have since been

again increased in number (Brun 1949). A list of the meteorological stations

at present operating is given by Elbo (1949), who writes: "Practically all the

weather stations are now manned by Danes and Greenlanders, although in 1948 in

a few cases there were still some Americans left for purposes of training Danes.

The last Americans will leave (the weather stations) when Grønlands Styrelse has

sufficient trained men at its disposal."

        Certain other developments should be mentioned here. In the geological field,

a useful deposit of lead was discovered in King Oscar Fjord in northeast Greenland

( Grønlandsposton 1948). The Danish Greenland Naval Command, established in 1945

at Godthaab, has been expanded since its establishment and is occupied in survey

and patrol activities. The military air bases are being maintained approximately

as before, at least for the time being by the United States; the Greenland Defense

Agreement is still in effect. The United States Government has maintained its

Consulate at Godthaab, but the Canadian Consulate was closed in June 1946. One

development resulting from the existence of the air fields built during the war

is the establishment of passenger and mail air traffic between Denmark and Green–

land, something which by all accounts and impressions still seemed a very long

way in the future in 1939.

        Only one important point remains to be made. Unless very considerable min–

eral wealth can be found, it is upon the behavior of the Irminger Current (see above)

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that the future of Greenland really hangs. The cold snap in 1949 may be only

a short temporary regression in the warming process, or in the maintenance of

the present warm period; such a setback was recorded also in 1937-38. But in

any event, all the planning of the last few years, all the development of the

Greenland colony since its beginnings, will progress or regress with the West

Greenland Current. If the warm period continues, there is nothing to stop the

growth of Greenland and the development of the Greenlanders as planned; but if

the Irminger Current fails, the resources of Greenland will be most seriously

reduced, and the ingenuity of the scientists and administrators concerned with

Greenland affairs will be sorely taxed to avoid disaster. The record of Den–

mark in Greenland hitherto, however, has been impressive enough to make the

observer believe that even should such an amergency arise, it will be met with

the same courage and the same success as were so effective in the difficult years

of the second world war.

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---

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brun, E. "Vort Monopol i Grønland." Grønlandsposten , 5 (5), pp. 106–

109. 1946.

----. "The Greenlander of Today." Arctic , 2 (1), pp. 3-12. 1949.

Dunbar, M. J. "The State of the West Greenland Current Up to 1944." J. Fish .

Res. Bd. Can ., VI (7), pp. 460-471. 1946.

----. "Greenland - An Experiment in Human Ecology." Commerce Journal

(Toronto Univ.), Mar. 1947. pp. 69-109.

Elbo, J. G. "Meteorological Stations in Greenland." Polar Record , 5

(37, 38), pp. 309-310. 1949.

Gad, F. Grønland under Krigen . Copenhagen, G. E. C. Gads Forlag, 56

pp. 1945.

----. "Grønlands Historie." Det Grønlandske Selskabs Skrifter ,

XIV, 270 pp. 1946.

Greenland Administration, 1943. Beretn. vedr. Gronl. Styrelse , Nr. 5, 1943.

----. "Report on Greenland." (to the United Nations). 82 pp.

mimeographed. 1949.

Grønlandsposten "Krav fra det grønlandske Landsraad." Grønlandsposten , 4 (17)

pp. 227. 1945.

----. "Betaenkning afgivet den 12 Juni 1946, etc." Ibid . 5 (6),

pp. 119-144. 1946.

----. "Det østgrønlandske Blyfund 1948." Ibid . 7 (18), pp. 212–

215. 1948.

----. "Grønlandskommission en Kendsgerning." Ibid . 8 (1), pp. 5-7.

1949a.

----. "Hvor bliver torsken af?" Ibid . 8 (15), pp. 183-184. 1949b.

Hedtoft, H. "Grønlands Fremtid." Det Grønlandake Selskabs Aarskrift , 1949,

pp. 7-40.

Jensen, A. S. "Concerning a Change in Climate..., etc." Kgl. Danske Vidensk .

Selsk.. Biol. Meddel ., 14 (8), pp. 1-75. 1939.

Koch, H. H. "Det Gronlandske Folk skal have del i Kulturens goder." Grøn–

landsposten , 8 (13), pp. 154-159. 1949.

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Porsild, A. E. "Greenland at the Crossroads." Arctic , 1 (1), pp. 53-57.

1948.

Vibe, C. Ene ligger Grønland . H. Hagerup, 235 pp. Copenhagen, 1946.

Vinding, O. Grønland 1945 . Gyldendal, 148 pp. Copenhagen, 1946.

       

M. J. Dunbar