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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository University of Calgary Press University of Calgary Press Open Access Books 2014 A historical and legal study of sovereignty in the Canadian north : terrestrial sovereignty, 1870–1939 Smith, Gordon W. University of Calgary Press "A historical and legal study of sovereignty in the Canadian north : terrestrial sovereignty, 1870–1939", Gordon W. Smith; edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer. University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, 2014 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/50251 book http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca A HISTORICAL AND LEGAL STUDY OF SOVEREIGNTY IN THE CANADIAN NORTH: TERRESTRIAL SOVEREIGNTY, 1870–1939 By Gordon W. Smith, Edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer ISBN 978-1-55238-774-0 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. 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Acknowledgement: We acknowledge the wording around open access used by Australian publisher, re.press, and thank them for giving us permission to adapt their wording to our policy http://www.re-press.org 10 215 Danish Sovereignt y, Greenland, and t he Ellesmere Island Affair of 1919–21 After the hiatus of inactivity during and just after the First World War, Canadian activity in the North was resumed in circumstances of stress and concern somewhat comparable to those that had existed when the Canadian government first took genuine steps to bring these regions under control about the turn of the century. Now, the causes of worry were such problems as the ultimate fate of Danish Greenland; the apparent disinclination of Denmark to recognize Canadian sover- eignty over Ellesmere Island; the international status of the so-called Sverdrup Islands, which had been discovered by this Norwegian explorer during his expedition of 1898–1902; the evident need for Canada to take at least some steps towards occupation and use of her claimed territories in the North generally; the exciting prospect of air travel and transport in and across the Arctic and all that this implied for Canada; and perhaps most important of all, the brooding, restless figure of the explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, now an ambitious celebrity, and his determined agitation and planning for northern development (discussed in the previous chapter). The story of how Canadian authorities responded to and tried to solve these problems occupied centre stage through most of the following twenty years. Danish Sovereignty over Greenland and Canadian Interests The first major problem in the North to engage the attention of the Canadian government at this time was the question of what should happen to Greenland if Denmark should ever decide to dis- pose of it. The old Norse settlements in Greenland, which were established by Norwegian-Icelandic sea voyagers some years after their discovery of the island around 900 AD, were first independent, then fell under the sovereignty of the Norwegian Crown about 1260 AD, and then became subject to the union of Scandinavian states formalized by the Treaty of Kalmar in 1397. Contact with the Old World was gradually lost, and the settlements mysteriously disappeared in the early fif- teenth century. Communications were re-established some years after the Columbian discovery of America; in 1721, the Norwegian pastor Hans Egede started a new colony, which soon was taken over by what was left of the Scandinavian union. By the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, the monarch of Denmark-Norway was obliged to cede Norway to bear out the contention, went on: “It is ob- to Sweden, but he managed to retain Greenland, viously in the interest of the Empire that no along with Iceland and the Faeroe Islands.1 additional territory should be acquired by the During the later nineteenth and early twenti- United States in or adjacent to the north half of eth centuries, Denmark gradually extended its the continent of North America.” Noting that activity and control in Greenland and then, an American attempt some years earlier to pur- 216 starting with a request to the United States in chase the Danish West Indies had been frus- 1915, set about securing formal recognition of trated when the Danish Landstinget (the upper its title in the island from the interested states. house of its legislature) refused to confirm the There was some uncertainty, however, whether agreement that had been made, and that Amer- Denmark was asking for general acknowledg- ican whalers and fishermen were active in the ment of her sovereignty over all of Greenland waters west of Greenland, the memo speculat- or of her right to extend her sovereignty over ed that the United States might try to acquire all of it. This later became a major issue, espe- Greenland. Canada was willing to purchase cially in the dispute with Norway over Eastern the island, however, and Laurier suggested that Greenland (see chapter 13).2 the British authorities ascertain confidentially When Denmark ceded the Danish West whether the Danish government would agree Indies in the Caribbean to the United States by to a British acquisition of Greenland for and at a treaty on 4 August 1916, the treaty had ap- the expense of Canada. pended to it an official declaration by American At the instance of the Foreign Office, the Secretary of State Robert Lansing to the effect matter was brought up in Copenhagen by Sir that “the Government of the United States of Edward Goschen, His Majesty’s Minister in America will not object to the Danish govern- Denmark, with negative results. Johan Henrik ment extending their political and economic Deuntzer, the Danish Foreign Minister, who interests to the whole of Greenland.”3 In 1920, had told Goschen that “Denmark would never similar declarations, essentially unqualified, dream of selling that territory” in the autumn were made by the French and Japanese govern- of 1903, now reiterated his former statement, ments.4 In 1920, Great Britain also recognized adding that “even if the Government wanted to Danish sovereignty over Greenland, but Brit- do so, it was certain that the country would not ain’s recognition was qualified and was preced- sanction such a sale.”5 ed by considerable negotiation. In 1917, the question of Greenland was dis- On 3 December 1903, Governor General cussed by a subcommittee of the Imperial War the Earl of Minto wrote to Colonial Secretary Cabinet. John Douglas Hazen, Canada’s Min- Alfred Lyttelton, enclosing a memorandum ister of Marine and Fisheries, had presented a which Prime Minister Laurier had handed him paper outlining and assessing the strategic im- that morning concerning “the proposal of the portance of the island. The report of the sub- Dominion Government to purchase Green- committee in April of that year stated: land.” The memo stated that “it has long been apparent to those who have noted the trend of events in the United States that the most popu- 1. That the position of Greenland lar policy in the Republic is the extension of makes the question of its terri- its territory” and, after citing certain evidence torial ownership a matter of great A HISTORICAL AND LEGAL STUDY OF SOVEREIGNTY IN THE CANADIAN NORTH importance to the British Em- with the Canadian view but feared that there pire as a whole and to Canada in would be considerable difficulty in getting particular.

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