Plaskett Meets With Danish Ambassador Ahead Of 2017 Centennial

ST. CROIX — With one year left before the territory marks the 100-year anniversary of the transfer of Danish to American rule, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett and the Ambassabor of Denmark are working toward bringing the centennial activities to the world stage, a press release Mrs. Plaskett office issued late Thursday has revealed.

Mrs. Plaskett and Ambassador Lars Lose discussed the current state of affairs in the territory, as well as the upcoming centennial anniversary of the 1917 transfer of the Virgin Islands from Denmark to the United States.

“Our meeting with Ambassador Lose, today, is important on a number of levels. We discussed the potential implications a newly formed Congressional caucus can have on the Centennial, as well as other ways to work together in bringing the history of the Danish West Indies and the issues surrounding the 1917 transfer to the forefront of the national discussion on equal treatment of the insular territories,” the freshman congresswoman said.

Mrs. Plaskett recently introduced legislation in Congress that would create a Congressional Commission to plan and carryout local and national events related to the 1917 transfer, the release adds.

The delegate to Congress said that she expects the Commission to not only bring a national awareness to the events commemorating the Transfer, but to also assist the local efforts already underway. The Congressional Commission will engage the other lawmakers in Congress and the Obama administration in a new national discussion around the issues that still exist in the Virgin Islands and America’s other Island territories.

The members of Congress who signed on to Mrs. Plaskett’s Centennial Commission Act have also signed a letter submitted to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee in support of her recommendation for the creation of a commemorative stamp.

In July 2015, the U.S. Department of Interior awarded the U.S. Virgin Islands Centennial Commission $500,000 in grant funding to assist in the planning and carrying out of activities commemorating the Transfer.

March 31, 2017, marks the 100-year anniversary of the Transfer of the Virgin Islands from Denmark to the United States.