Show ECONOMIC highlights industrial news review according to most commentators comment aters it is the belief of the president that this country can take many a belligerent Ille li erent step without formally be comin coming a a participant in the war judging by recent german statements that belief seems to be well bounded goun ded hillers Hit lers spokesmen poK esmen denounce the united states and its foreign policy but they still say that germany will not be forc edin to declaring war on us by overt rats in short hitless Hit lers legions are busy enough now without taking on a new foe j if hitler had wished he could obviously have construed the U S military occupation of iceland as ian an act of war iceland is less than a i thousand miles from germany and could be developed into a ma jor airbase for use against the I 1 reich whether or not iceland is lually a part of the western hemisphere is a highly debatable r question fuestion ue stion the little island lies across the meridian which is generally considered the dividing line of the two hemispheres two thirds of the country is east of th that line iline however the one third which is west of the line includes reykjavik the only large icelandic Icil andic city and port the reasons for occupying iceland are clear enough first the american occupation has Te released leased numbers of empire troops for service elsewhere the bulk of them will probably be sent to africa where britain has just won a decisive victory over france and where there are rumors of german action to pull well burnt chestnuts out of the fire second the american occupation of iceland makes it possible for us to patrol and dominate th the e greater part of the atlantic ocean thus batish denof war need ozay to protect the convoys from iceland to english ports which involves a distance of about miles third the american occupation of iceland has made it clear to the world that as the president said we will recognize no fixed geobra I 1 boundaries in carrying out our policy of protecting this hemisphere from aggressors it is the governments position that the airplane has made all previous ideas of hemispheric defense more or less obsolete and that our our votary out posts must be for flung 16 indeed fourth the american occupation of iceland may have been designed as a move to pave the way for future occupation of other foreign possessions in our part of the world notably dakar in french africa and the strategic cape verde islands theoretically our navy is not convoying british shipping it is simply patrolling the A atlantic tl antic in actuality many auth authorities authority es believe there is little difference between a convoy and a patrol and american fighting ships are at sea now warn ing the british wherever they come on a nazo raider the american IN tavy navy in other words is pretty much in the war furthermore american aid tho the many still feel that it is not great g reat enough is becoming a real factor in the conflict some of the great bombers which have been blasting at german occupied areas on the continent are of american make british dreams of air equality and eventual air superiority have not yet been realized but they are corn com inge ing closer to actuality and at the same time with a large part of the german strength mobilized in the r eastern astern front british power relatively speaking is undoubtedly greater by far than in the past |