'Greater Canada' includes Greenland

In the past few weeks, U.S. President Donald Trump’s wish to acquire Greenland has put the Arctic territory in the news like never before.

It has also given armchair geographers opportunities to indulge their fantasies and pet projects on the island’s future.

Trump’s musings were thin on detail. Was he going to buy Greenland? Or just take it? He didn’t say. But some years ago when he first floated the idea, he had hoped to buy it.

At that time, Trump’s offer was simplicity itself compared with a plan that had come out of Washington more than 100 years earlier. But that plan — though it came unofficially from the capital of America — was not for the United States to end up with Greenland. Instead, Canada would acquire it — without paying a penny.

Think of it as “Make Canada Great Again.”

Robert Stein had led one expedition to the Arctic by hitching a ride on a ship supporting an expedition by Robert Peary. He had spent two winters in Greenland and returned to America filled with ideas about the promise of the Arctic. In that respect, he was like Icelandic-Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, but without the charisma.

Stein never returned to the Arctic.

He busied himself promoting his pet projects of monetary reform and world peace. As usual, he promoted his ideas by publishing pamphlets. And, as in the past, his ideas found no traction with governments or the public.

But, like a true fanatic, he maintained his interest in the North and from the comfortable vantage point of Washington he concocted a hare-brained scheme. This one would involve a daring feat of diplomacy involving Canada, Britain, Denmark, Germany and the United States.

Stein had long been worried about tensions that were building between Britain and Germany. He knew also Germany had occupied North Schleswig, previously a part of Denmark, since 1864. And he knew Denmark wanted it back.

One solution might have been for Germany to trade it back to Denmark in return for Denmark’s colonial possessions in the West Indies. But the United States would not hear of Germany acquiring territory so close to America.

But what about a trade for Greenland? No; no one wanted to hear of that, either; it violated the Monroe Doctrine of the United States.

Robert Stein had a solution, or so he thought.

The United States would give part of the Philippines to Denmark and in return acquire the Danish islands in the West Indies. Denmark would give Greenland to Canada, because Canada was viewed as being a British possession.

Britain would in return give Denmark some of its possessions in Polynesia and Africa.

Denmark would then turn over its newly acquired possessions in the Philippines, Polynesia and Africa to Germany, in return for North Schleswig. For good measure — and for no apparent reason — Britain would give Newfoundland to Canada. Tensions would thus be defused and the world would remain at peace.

Stein published his plans in American newspapers in early January 1909. They were picked up by other papers in Europe. He claimed that he received great support. Of course, no one consulted the Greenlanders nor, for that matter, the Africans, Polynesians or Filipinos.

Stein even had a map published in which the name GREATER CANADA is plastered in large, bold letters across Canada and Greenland. It bears a legend showing the area of Canada in square miles, and then what that area would be with the inclusion of Greenland, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

For some reason, Stein thought these trade-offs would be relatively simple to accomplish. He believed his plan would create peace.

Stein was employed in a mundane job in Washington, a position with no influence. But he was quite deluded about the worth of his madcap ideas, fancying himself a man of influence.

As usual, he published his plans at his own expense. In 1912, he published Greater Canada and the Peace Problem.

In another pamphlet, he even suggested the United States turn the Alaska Panhandle over to Canada in return for an equally strategic, but unnamed, piece of Canadian territory. Unfortunately, Stein couched many of his arguments in the language of white supremacy, and frankly admitted that he was a believer in eugenics.

He wrote that “every man who knows anything about the matter will agree that Canada ought to have Greenland.”

This was the only way, he claimed, that adequate protection could be given to the resources of Greenland and the Canadian High Arctic.

“Only in this way can the whale receive adequate protection,” he said, adding, “Prospectors could then afford to explore every corner within 100 miles of Baffin Bay. A tourist trade would spring up as soon as regular communication was established.”

In The Canadian Magazine under the title Canada and Greenland, he closed with an impassioned plea:

“Without spending a cent, by simply expressing a wish to own Greenland, she [Canada] can gain that colony, the control of Baffin Bay, a monopoly of its whale fishery, most likely the accession of Newfoundland, hasten the development of her present Arctic possessions, cement the friendship between Britain and Denmark, largely restore the former cordiality between Britain and Germany, and, by thus lessening the naval competition, effect a saving of millions in her own budget and in that of the mother country.”

His final sentence reads more like a taunt: “Will she take her place among those that know the right and do it not?”

In fact, Canada did nothing. Stein’s correspondence ended up on the desk of R.W. Brock, director of the Geological Survey of Canada, who passed it on to Joseph Pope, undersecretary of state for the recently formed Department of External Affairs.

Pope wrote to Brock, “I do not think [Stein’s proposal] calls for any action.”

And there the matter ended. The world went to war, unaware of Stein’s unorthodox scheme. Stein, despairing of world peace, died by suicide in 1917.

Taissumani is an occasional column that recalls events of historical interest. Kenn Harper is a historian and writer who lived in the Arctic for over 50 years. He is the author of “Give Me Winter, Give Me Dogs: Knud Rasmussen and the Fifth Thule Expedition,” and “Thou Shalt Do No Murder,” among other books. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.