The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

The result of Norwegian pressure was a treaty which respected some
Norwegian hunting interests in East Greenland. As citizens of the Danish
Realm it appeared strange to many Faroese that they could not get access
to West Greenlandic resources. The whole situation required new statute
laws concerning hunting and fishing off Greenland. Petitions from
Suðeroy and elsewhere against the Danish-Norwegian Greenland Treaty
forced the Faroese Members of Parliament in Copenhagen to threaten to
leave their Venstre-party (the ruling liberal party) if the Faroese claims
were not recognized. The home secretary, O. Kragh, then introduced to
Parliament a bill which allowed Faroese fishing out of Godthåb (Nuuk)
and Tre Brødre Havn (Sermilik). 134
On 5 July, 1924, the Greenland Treaty was officially ratified. In
article six of the Danish-Icelandic Treaty of 1918 mutual and free fishing
rights were guaranteed for Danish (including Faroese) and Icelandic
fishermen in their territorial waters respectively. But Greenlandic waters
were in general still closed to all Danish, Faroese and Icelandic
fishermen.
Since the late 1890s the Faroese had protested about British and
Scottish trawlers fishing too near the Faroese shores. In 1898 the Lagting
even stipulated 12,500 DKK to lease a patrol ship until the Royal Danish
Navy could take over a more strict control. 135 In 1901/03 British-Danish
negotiations resulted in a treaty over the territorial waters better than the
former but still founded on a three nautical miles sea limit.
The declining Faroese fishery in local waters in the early 1920s was
followed by renewed political demands to Denmark. These were
primarily an expansion of Faroese territorial waters, secondly a more
extensive and vigorously exercised patrolling of the territorial waters and
rich fishing banks—especially directed against UK trawlers. 136 The
Danish government did try, in vain, to get the British government to
accept an extension of Faroese territorial waters. An effective extension
of patrolling by the Royal Danish Navy was taken into consideration but
Faroese political party system see Mørkøre, ‘Class Interests and Nationalism’, 1991.
134 Steining, ‘Færøerne’ 160-162.
135 For the protests over UK trawlers, Føringatíðindi, 4/8, 1/9,15/12 1898 with reports
from the meetings of the Lagting. In its meeting 3 December, 1898, the approbation of
12,500 DKK was passed and the extension of the territorial sea presented to the
government as an urgent claim.
136 Deliberations on the proposition about ‘Færøske Territorialfarvande’ (Faroese
territorial waters), committee report and decision, Lagtingstidende 1924/25, 9-10
September 1924, pp. 138-139.
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