The cod war
Sir: I imagine that I am one of the relatively few subscribers of your journal in Iceland and that is even more reason for me feeling justified to ask you for your readers' facilities — namely space in the ' Letters to the Editor' column.
I refer to the Spectator's Notebook which appeared on September 2, signed by PC — dealing with the fishing dispute between our two countries — the article headed 'Royal Navy cod.'
First of all I must correct the author on two points of fact: Iceland is not extending its territorial waters to fifty miles — we are only extending our fishing limits. Our territorial waters remain three miles! Britain extended her fishing limits to twelve miles shortly after the last 'cod war' (having presumably drawn the right conclusions from our action — and good for her) but to the best of my knowledge, her territorial waters remain three miles. Furthermore PC should know that there are no international laws dealing with or prohibiting countries from extending their fishing limits — such laws only deal with extension of territorial waters and the right of coastal states to the resources underneath the seabed.
Most of the uninformed public — in England at least — is ignorant of these facts — and I must therefore express my surprise that no less a person than the author of the 'Spectator's Notebook' not only misinforms his readers on these points — he simply doesn't know what he is writing about!
Good upbringing and manners have been for a long time considered as one of the cornerstones of civilised society and these assets have for a good reason been associated with Englishmen; most foreigners think of these virtues as one of many that go into making the so-called 'English Gentleman.' It is therefore most disappointing for somebody like myself, who lived in England for many years and likes and respects the fairness, good manners, the tolerance and respect for other people's feelings, which for the most part charactersise the English, to read — in The Spectator of all papers — language which is both silly and insulting — language only fitting to the most sordid sensational rags, catering for the lowest tastes. Example:". . . that Gilbertian character" (referring to our Foreign Minister) "this asinine hypocrisy of this hypocritical representative of a nonnation. . .
I would not know what PC means by a "non-nation." The last person who I can recall used this phrase in public — apart from PC — was the late Herr Adolf Hitler, referring to the luckless Czechs, whom he consequently felt justified in crushing. I draw this comparison, since PC hopes that HM Navy will move in, or as he says: "... we are come to a pretty pass if we cannot bring the Icelanders to heel; and if we make no effort to do that, these absurd little wouldbe bullies will think themselves well on the way to another wet arrangement, which will give them what they want."
We Icelanders are the only nation (or "non-nation') in Europe who depends entirely on fishing and, regrettable as it is, the once enormously rich fishing grounds arounda Iceland have been overfished for years by many nations to such an extent that the cod, about which the dispute revolves has now practically disappeared from the catches. But being a " non-nation " perhaps we do not qualify for preserving our livelihood in PC's opinion. (The question remains — what is there to fight about, once the cod has completely disappeared?) I think that we, "absurd little would-be bullies " as we are, will
continue to be " absurd " enough to live in Iceland for many centuries to come, as we have for the past 1100 years — will continue to help to feed the people of Britain (as we did through the last two wars, losing a higher proportion of ships and men than many a nation which actually fought in that war) will continue to rescue English fishermen who are shipwrecked on our shores, will continue to treat and cure those English fishermen who meet with accidents at sea in our hospitals — as we did only a few days ago, will continue to welcome all Englishmen who are well brought up and have good manners — even PC himself, provided of course, that he grows up, behaves like a gentleman and writes articles based on facts not on silly, arrogant and rude noises.
Pall Heidar Jonsso,. Framnesvegur 11, Reykjavik, Iceland
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