One hundred years ago The dispute about the famine in
Iceland affords a remarkable example of the difficulty, not to say the impossibili- ty, of obtaining accurate facts about the condition of any place. It has been reported, apparently with the full con- sent of all Danish officials, that the Icelanders are starving; and a Mansion- House Relief Committee on Wednesday despatched £3,000 worth of provisions and fodder for their relief. On Thurs- day, however, Mr C. E. Paterson declares, in The Times, that his brother, the British Consul for Iceland, had received no information indicating distress; and that he himself, in a tour round the island just ended, observed no Indication of it. Not a whisper reached him of starvation; the animals said to be Perishing were in good condition. The stant response to the complaints il- lustrates the curiously strong friendliness lwaelays felt in this ' country for the Icelanders who are far better known to educated Englishmen than our own Hebrideans.
Spectator, 30 September 1882
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