ALLIES MOVE FORWARD IN NORWAY. Associated Press reporter Thomas F. Hawkins serves up some good news in Monday's papers about the fighting in Norway. Allied troops, both British and French, are battling the Germans “from north of Trondheim on the west coast almost to the Swedish border north of Oslo.” Norwegian diplomatic sources are seconding British claims that Hamar, 40 miles from Sweden and 60 miles north of Oslo, has been retaken by British and Norwegian soldiers supported by tanks. It's said that the Allies have retaken Elverum, which was seized by advancing Germans only a couple of days ago. A French division has landed 100 miles north of Trondheim, at Namsos. Heavy fighting is reported within 35 miles of Trondheim, at the coastal town of Verdalsora.
There's growing confidence in Britain that the Allies will score “sensational successes” in the Norwegian campaign, writes Larry Rue from London for Monday's Chicago Tribune. London's Daily Mail hailed the British capture of Hamar as a "magnificent piece of strategy, outrivalling anything of the Germans." Mr. Rue also says that “The Tribune correspondent was told to bet his ‘bottom dollar’ that every German in Norway would be dead or have surrendered before May 15. The bet was not taken, but the correspondent merely mentions this as symptomatic of the hopes of those supposedly ‘in the know.’”
FRANCE AND BRITAIN WARN ITALY. France and Britain have drawn a line in southeastern Europe, writes Ralph Heinzen in a Monday dispatch for the United Press. The Allies have told Mussolini officially that “they will not tolerate the slightest change in the Mediterranean status quo, including the Adriatic, and that they could not continue to recognize [Italy] as a nonbelligerent if the Fascist state occupied any part of Yugoslavia, even in the guise of ‘preventative’ or ‘protective’ occupation.” This follows a period in which Italy’s press has been “furiously hostile” toward Britain, and rumors have swept Balkan capitals of an imminent Italian push against the Yugoslavs. Ominously, Fascist leaders have also “warned the Italian people to be ready to fight and have hinted that Italy may enter the war soon.”
So much for all that talk in March about Italy being so put off by Russo-German cooperation that she might ditch the Rome-Berlin Axis entirely. No such luck, apparently.
CAN ITALY FIGHT? Not well and not for long, according to Walter Lippmann’s column in last Saturday’s New York Herald Tribune --
“The weakness of Italy’s position is manifest and is freely recognized by all clear-headed Italians. Italy has no coal and no oil and no steel, and only an insignificant part of Italy’s requirements could be supplied overland from Germany; the Italian peninsula is for all intents and purposes an island and, therefore, absolutely vulnerable to a blockade. The Italian Empire consists of Abyssinia, which can be cut off at Suez; of Libya, which lies between the French armies at Tunis and the British armies in Egypt. As a belligerent Italy would be fighting in the Mediterranean against France, Britain, and Turkey. For Italy to enter the war before Hitler has struck a really deadly blow at the Allies would, therefore, appear to be suicidal madness, and that is exactly what most Italians think it would be.”
Mussolini’s dilemma, Mr. Lippmann writes, is that “if Hitler is going to win the war, it is no less dangerous for Italy to stay out of the war. A victorious Nazi Germany would not fail to resent fiercely the fact that...Italy had not fulfilled her pledges.” Thus, the Italians face a difficult balancing act -- “[Italy’s] only chance to save anything from this desperate situation is to join the Germans if they are winning, to join them before it is too late to contribute anything important to the Nazi victory, yet not too soon to be fatally hurt by the Allies.”
HITLER’S NEXT TARGET - THE BALKANS? John Elliott writes from Paris for Sunday’s New York Herald Tribune that French observers now see the Balkans as potentially the hottest spot on the European “volcano,” and that the Yugoslavs might face danger from Hitler as well as from Mussolini --
“Yugoslavia appears particularly threatened. German troop concentrations are reported along the southern frontier of Austria. At the same time the presence of thousands of Nazi ‘tourists’ has been observed in Yugoslavia, Rumania, and Hungary. Last summer, it will be recalled, Danzig was flooded similarly with visiting Nazis a short time before the Germans invaded the Polish Corridor and the Free City.”
WHAT OF DENMARK’S “ORPHAN” TERRITORIES? The day that Nazi troops occupied Denmark, the Allies and the U.S. worried over what would happen to the Danes’ western territories -- Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands, some 200 miles north of Scotland. The British moved quickly, putting troops ashore on the thinly-populated Faroes. But the U.S. is much more worried about what will happen to Iceland and Greenland, also small in population and almost undefended -- and offering strategic advantages to any possessor. The current Newsweek describes why Americans care what happens to these two islands --
“Greenland at least falls within the Western Hemisphere and therefore within the scope of the Monroe Doctrine....William Seward, Secretary of State under Lincoln and Johnson, when negotiating for the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, urged that the United States buy Greenland and Iceland, too, to assure this country control of the North Atlantic. Sen. Ernest Lundeen, Minnesota Farmer-Laborite, long has advocated acquisition of foreign possessions in this hemisphere. Last week there were calls from Capitol Hill for the placing of the two strategic islands under the joint jurisdiction of Canada and the United States.
Iceland, whose population of 117,000 was self-governing but officially under the rule of Denmark’s king, assumed full independence the day after the Nazis conquered the Danes. But the Icelanders have no army, navy, or air force, and only about a hundred police. And last year they were visited by a “scientific expedition” from Germany -- which included warships.
WHEN NAZIS INVADE, TRAITORS HELP. “Europe is looking the Trojan Horse in the mouth this week-end,” writes James B. Reston in Sunday’s New York Times. He neatly sums up the Nazi record on subversion to describe why Europeans are suddenly so alarmed by this --
“In 1938 Austria was conquered from within with Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart acting as the Fuehrer’s Charlie McCarthy. In 1939 it was Konrad Heinlein and his following who undermined Czecho-Slovakia, and it was those same German ‘commercial travelers’ who started the Czech riots. But in neither of those countries was the technique of the Trojan Horse, applied so successfully as it was in Norway last week when, by lies, bribery, bluff, faked telegrams and carefully planned and perfectly timed sabotage, 2,000 Nazis took Oslo and a few thousand others marched into the undermined ports of Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen and Stavanger.”
Mr. Reston adds that because of those tactics -- first disclosed by U.S. newspapermen -- Europe is now in a state of alarm. “Every man with a German accent or pro-German sentiments is a suspect....Every country is calling its roll of aliens. All the nations, especially the liberal democracies, are guarding their ports, protecting their valuable areas and planning every manner of new defense.”
DEMOCRATS HAVE SLIGHT ADVANTAGE. Dr. Gallup has completed his state-by-state surveys of how the two political parties match up in the 1940 presidential campaign. And according to his report in Sunday’s Washington Post, the Democrats have the lead. No surprise there, but Dr. Gallup adds that the Republicans are actually in a better position than they’ve been in many years.
Right now, the Democrats lead in 31 states having 317 electoral votes, while the G.O.P. leads only in 17 states with 214 electoral votes. But, the pollster adds, “the Democratic lead in several states is so slim -- notably in New York and Minnesota -- that a shift of only 1 percentage point would completely alter the picture and throw a majority of electoral votes to the G.O.P. Political observers will have to go back to the Wilson-Hughes race of 1916 to find an election where the two parties proved to be so evenly matched in popular strength.”
Sounds like a young crime-busting Republican, popular with the party rank-and-file, and who has demonstrated an ability in the primaries to draw votes, just could be the man to get that extra percentage point. Are you listening, party leaders? Will you give up your puzzling dedication to Senator Taft and help Thomas E. Dewey get the nomination?
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Sunday, April 21, 1940
BRITISH TROOPS HEAD FOR TRONDHEIM. The Tommies have landed and are ready to put up a fight for Norway. Otto D. Tolischus writes in Saturday’s New York Times that a combined British-Norwegian force is expected to launch an attack on the Nazi-held port of Trondheim. The Germans are rushing troops and artillery northward to meet the Allied threat. The International News Service says that 50,000 British troops have marched into central Norway in the last few days, with more arriving hourly near the port of Namsos. There, the British smashed a German “death battalion” Thursday, took the city, and set up a defense line from Namsos to the Swedish border, with the aim of keeping the main German invasion force out of the northern half of the country.
But the Germans are on the attack, too, and have as of Friday landed 85,000 men in south Norway, according to an Associated Press estimate. (About 2,000 Nazi troops are arriving every day, says the A.P.) Donald Day reports in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that reinforced German units are pushing southeast from Trondheim and north from Oslo and “are threatening the secret hiding place of King Haakon and the Norwegian government.” The Nazis are also on the outskirts of Elverum, the “West Point of Norway” and the former temporary capital. But according to the Times, “strong Norwegian forces” are ready to oppose the Germans there, and British troops might be on hand as well.
So, still no big land battles yet, but it sounds like they’re coming any day.
WAR JITTERS ALL OVER EUROPE. As if Europe couldn’t get any more worried about the war, a front-page story in Saturday’s Washington Post describes a near-panic among neutral governments over the possibility of “Fifth Column” activity that the Nazis made so much use of in Norway. Says the Post -- “Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Rumania, and Sweden extended surveillance or ordered arrest of suspected aliens.” The story raises some alarming possibilities of what else Hitler might be contemplating, and Mussolini as well --
“Holland declared martial law for all the Netherlands, and a virtual state of siege. The Hague government continued its roundup of suspected saboteurs and foreign agents....Belgium, where German ‘tourists’ are reported to have arrived in large numbers, decided on a roundup of aliens and interned thousands of them....Yugoslavia, rumored facing an Italian ‘protectorate’ as well as a Nazi invasion, announced discovery of a plot to turn the government over to the Nazis....Hungary called out its air raid protection squads as British and French nationals fled Budapest on rumors of a threatened German invasion....Sweden maintained her border and coast patrol on a war footing.”
MAYBE HOLLAND, MAYBE RUMANIA. That’s what Capt. M.M. Corpening writes in Friday’s Chicago Tribune --
“A continuous flow of propaganda has been focusing attention upon the Baltic states and some sources say this indicates that Adolf Hitler’s next offensive will be a drive against Holland. It is part of Hitler’s policy to strike in an unexpected sector. Others contend the time has come for Germany to invade Rumania and obtain essential raw materials.”
Or, Capt. Corpening says, the Nazis might be ready to attack both countries at once -- “A heavy concentration of troops and equipment has been in progress recently both opposite Holland and in southeast Germany....Troops were similarly concentrated in the north before Norway was invaded.”
It’s funny how, prior to April 9, there were so many predictions that Hitler had decided to sit out 1940 and not attempt any major offensive operations for a full year, at least. Germany just didn’t have the strength to strike in force, said these reports, many of them coming from Paris. And now, since the day the first German troops landed in Norway, the experts are talking as if the Fuehrer’s about to launch an all-out attack against every other nation on the continent. But what if Norway is his big effort for 1940 -- a tactical effort to gain better access to raw materials and bases to use against Britain next year? And what if nothing else happens this spring? Just a thought.
NORWAY ALMOST SURRENDERED. The Norwegians themselves now admit just how close they came to capitulating to Hitler, according to James B. Reston in Saturday’s New York Times -- “Hunted by German troops and planes, his capital and all his strategic ports occupied by Nazi soldiers, King Haakon of Norway and his ministers held a brief peace conference with the German minister, Dr. Curt Brauer, and indicated a willingness to accept sweeping German terms, but the talks broke down when Chancellor Hitler issued new demands.”
Yes, an official White Book issues by Norway’s legation in London says that but for Hitler’s arrogance, the Nazis might have marched into the country without formal resistance, and British troops might have landed “in a hostile instead of a friendly Norway” -- if they dared make the effort at all. Specifically, Hitler demanded that the sitting Norwegian government be replaced by a gang headed by Major Vidkun Quisling, head of the Norwegian Nazi movement. And this King Haakon could not tolerate.
By the way, Mr. Reston, Hitler retired his “Chancellor” title last year. He’s simply “Der Fuehrer” now.
FRENCH CRACK DOWN ON RED SUBVERSIVES. The current issue of Time magazine has an update on France’s continuing efforts to thwart Nazi and Communist subversion. It’s getting pretty serious -- Premier Reynaud has ordered his interior minister to issue a decree making any further Nazi or Communist agitation punishable by “long imprisonment or death.” Last week a Paris court handed out five-year sentences to thirty-six Communist ex-legislators. Other Reds are being sent to concentration camps for “Communazis” near Paris, and some are claimed to be hiding in the Soviet Embassy.
The trouble with the Communists, of course, is that they’re propagandizing on behalf of Germany's party line -- the Allies started the war, peace should be made immediately on Hitler’s terms, etc. And the Reds have been at it since the war began. Says Time -- “French police have made over 11,000 raids on suspects since break of war, have seized as much as two tons of Communist propaganda in a raid.”
But the Germans are on the attack, too, and have as of Friday landed 85,000 men in south Norway, according to an Associated Press estimate. (About 2,000 Nazi troops are arriving every day, says the A.P.) Donald Day reports in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that reinforced German units are pushing southeast from Trondheim and north from Oslo and “are threatening the secret hiding place of King Haakon and the Norwegian government.” The Nazis are also on the outskirts of Elverum, the “West Point of Norway” and the former temporary capital. But according to the Times, “strong Norwegian forces” are ready to oppose the Germans there, and British troops might be on hand as well.
So, still no big land battles yet, but it sounds like they’re coming any day.
WAR JITTERS ALL OVER EUROPE. As if Europe couldn’t get any more worried about the war, a front-page story in Saturday’s Washington Post describes a near-panic among neutral governments over the possibility of “Fifth Column” activity that the Nazis made so much use of in Norway. Says the Post -- “Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Rumania, and Sweden extended surveillance or ordered arrest of suspected aliens.” The story raises some alarming possibilities of what else Hitler might be contemplating, and Mussolini as well --
“Holland declared martial law for all the Netherlands, and a virtual state of siege. The Hague government continued its roundup of suspected saboteurs and foreign agents....Belgium, where German ‘tourists’ are reported to have arrived in large numbers, decided on a roundup of aliens and interned thousands of them....Yugoslavia, rumored facing an Italian ‘protectorate’ as well as a Nazi invasion, announced discovery of a plot to turn the government over to the Nazis....Hungary called out its air raid protection squads as British and French nationals fled Budapest on rumors of a threatened German invasion....Sweden maintained her border and coast patrol on a war footing.”
MAYBE HOLLAND, MAYBE RUMANIA. That’s what Capt. M.M. Corpening writes in Friday’s Chicago Tribune --
“A continuous flow of propaganda has been focusing attention upon the Baltic states and some sources say this indicates that Adolf Hitler’s next offensive will be a drive against Holland. It is part of Hitler’s policy to strike in an unexpected sector. Others contend the time has come for Germany to invade Rumania and obtain essential raw materials.”
Or, Capt. Corpening says, the Nazis might be ready to attack both countries at once -- “A heavy concentration of troops and equipment has been in progress recently both opposite Holland and in southeast Germany....Troops were similarly concentrated in the north before Norway was invaded.”
It’s funny how, prior to April 9, there were so many predictions that Hitler had decided to sit out 1940 and not attempt any major offensive operations for a full year, at least. Germany just didn’t have the strength to strike in force, said these reports, many of them coming from Paris. And now, since the day the first German troops landed in Norway, the experts are talking as if the Fuehrer’s about to launch an all-out attack against every other nation on the continent. But what if Norway is his big effort for 1940 -- a tactical effort to gain better access to raw materials and bases to use against Britain next year? And what if nothing else happens this spring? Just a thought.
NORWAY ALMOST SURRENDERED. The Norwegians themselves now admit just how close they came to capitulating to Hitler, according to James B. Reston in Saturday’s New York Times -- “Hunted by German troops and planes, his capital and all his strategic ports occupied by Nazi soldiers, King Haakon of Norway and his ministers held a brief peace conference with the German minister, Dr. Curt Brauer, and indicated a willingness to accept sweeping German terms, but the talks broke down when Chancellor Hitler issued new demands.”
Yes, an official White Book issues by Norway’s legation in London says that but for Hitler’s arrogance, the Nazis might have marched into the country without formal resistance, and British troops might have landed “in a hostile instead of a friendly Norway” -- if they dared make the effort at all. Specifically, Hitler demanded that the sitting Norwegian government be replaced by a gang headed by Major Vidkun Quisling, head of the Norwegian Nazi movement. And this King Haakon could not tolerate.
By the way, Mr. Reston, Hitler retired his “Chancellor” title last year. He’s simply “Der Fuehrer” now.
FRENCH CRACK DOWN ON RED SUBVERSIVES. The current issue of Time magazine has an update on France’s continuing efforts to thwart Nazi and Communist subversion. It’s getting pretty serious -- Premier Reynaud has ordered his interior minister to issue a decree making any further Nazi or Communist agitation punishable by “long imprisonment or death.” Last week a Paris court handed out five-year sentences to thirty-six Communist ex-legislators. Other Reds are being sent to concentration camps for “Communazis” near Paris, and some are claimed to be hiding in the Soviet Embassy.
The trouble with the Communists, of course, is that they’re propagandizing on behalf of Germany's party line -- the Allies started the war, peace should be made immediately on Hitler’s terms, etc. And the Reds have been at it since the war began. Says Time -- “French police have made over 11,000 raids on suspects since break of war, have seized as much as two tons of Communist propaganda in a raid.”
Monday, April 18, 2016
Thursday, April 18, 1940
A NAZI “TRICK” SPLITS NORWAY. The Associated Press calls the latest German ploy in Norway “an audacious coup.” And it was simple -- a train full of German soldiers sped rapidly through Norwegian-held territory, bisecting the nation in a horizontal line going from Trondheim almost all the way to the Swedish border. As the train moved eastward along the Trondheim-Storlien railway, the Germans posted guard units at all bridges and stations, “giving them complete control of the railway.” The A.P. describes how the Nazi troops managed to travel unmolested through Norwegian-held territory in the first place --
“Advices reaching Stockholm said Norwegian railway employees, supplied with false information that the train bore their own forces, gave right of way to the Germans, who reached Storlien Heights, 3 miles from the Swedish frontier and 50 miles east of Trondheim port on Norway’s west coast.”
James Reston writes in Wednesday’s New York Times that Norwegian officials now view the situation in south Norway as critical. Even though British troops are said to be engaging the Germans in the far northern port of Narvik, “in the south, the Germans are consolidating their gains and the disorganized Norwegians are still without effective Allied aid in that region.” Norway’s ambassador to Britain met Tuesday with Prime Minister Chamberlain to plead that Allied troops were “urgently needed” to fight the Germans in the south.
GERMAN OFFENSIVE AGAINST ALLIES DELAYED? According to the New York Herald Tribune, the “unexpected difficulties” facing the Germans in Norway have delayed the start of a major Nazi offensive on the Western Front. The story cites neutral observers in Berlin as “convinced that Germany planned to have control of Norway as well as Denmark by the end of the first day and then intended to keep things moving by striking toward the west -- though not necessarily at the Maginot line.” But now, the observers say, Hitler’s generals are forced to throw an increasing amount of military weight at subduing the Norwegian army, plus dealing with the growing threat of British troop landings.
As far as what comes next, the Herald Tribune doesn’t offer any new predictions. But I still think the likeliest possibility is that the Nazis will send their troops into Holland with no warning, then use that country’s air bases for an all-out attack on England by warplanes within a few weeks.
DENMARK’S BEING LOOTED. C.B.S.’s William Shirer said in his broadcast from Berlin yesterday morning that several of his German friends have been “watering their mouths” at the prospect of the butter, eggs, and bacon which will soon be brought into Germany from occupied Denmark. Meanwhile, Frank R. Kelley writes in Wednesday’s New York Herald Tribune that the German Army is appropriating Danish food, and more --
“Scarcely had the Nazi invaders established themselves in Denmark, it was said, than the slaughter of Danish pigs, cattle, and other livestock reached mass proportions. At the same time the Germans were said to have begun to strip Copenhagen and other cities of removable metal, such as park railings, traffic stanchions and ornamental objects, in order to feed them into the maw of the war machine.”
Does it surprise anyone that the Germans promised the Danish government a little over a week ago that they were only on hand to “protect” Denmark and would not exploit her resources for the war effort?
HOW NORSE TREASON HELPED HITLER. Several reports have said the Nazi ships which sailed into Oslo Fjord on April 9 were benefited by “mysterious orders” to Norwegian vessels and naval batteries not to fire on the invaders. Other highly-placed “fifth columnists” holding high positions in the Norwegian army are said to have helped German ships land troops at several ports, to have assisted in the seizure of Oslo, etc. But now Donald Day writes in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune that Hitler is backing away from the top Norwegian traitor, Major Vidkun Quisling, who the Germans appointed as premier of the new Oslo government just a few days ago. It seems to be one last attempt by the Nazis to conciliate King Haakon’s government, who just a few days ago Nazi forces were trying to bomb into oblivion. Just maybe the Feuhrer’s getting a little bit worried.
Mr. Day notes new examples of treason in Norway, and what some patriotic Norwegians are doing about it -- “At the Belerne fort, the garrison mutinied and refused to obey a command to surrender. The troops locked up their officers and opened fire on the Germans. They said they sank two destroyers before the fort was put out of action.” On the other hand, the treason apparently is ongoing and continues to harm Norway’s defense effort -- “The Norwegian government has been shocked by the surrender of some military commanders to German forces without resistance. Bewildered and dismayed by false orders and information, other commanders have ceased resisting the German advance.”
BEWARE OF “FIFTH COLUMNS” ELSEWHERE. In his Washington Post column on Wednesday, Barnet Nover seconds the view that Hitler was helped a great deal by Norwegian traitors --
“In his brilliant dispatch to the Chicago Daily News Monday, Leland Stowe, who was present in the Norwegian capital when the German invaders arrived, declares that Oslo was captured not with armed force but by a gigantic conspiracy. In their bold and almost successful bid to dominate the country by a lighting coup, the Nazis apparently depended far less on naval, military and air power than on treachery and sabotage. The results justified the accurance with which they went through with their plans....Oslo, a city of 300,000, was taken by 1,500 men.”
Mr. Nover adds that what happened in Norway constitutes a warning for the remaining neutrals -- “every little nation in Europe knows now what it faces, not only from without, but also from within. The next days and weeks are thus certain to see an elaborate search everywhere in neutral lands for Trojan horses bearing the sign of the swastika. Even at this late date to be forewarned is to be forearmed.”
“Advices reaching Stockholm said Norwegian railway employees, supplied with false information that the train bore their own forces, gave right of way to the Germans, who reached Storlien Heights, 3 miles from the Swedish frontier and 50 miles east of Trondheim port on Norway’s west coast.”
James Reston writes in Wednesday’s New York Times that Norwegian officials now view the situation in south Norway as critical. Even though British troops are said to be engaging the Germans in the far northern port of Narvik, “in the south, the Germans are consolidating their gains and the disorganized Norwegians are still without effective Allied aid in that region.” Norway’s ambassador to Britain met Tuesday with Prime Minister Chamberlain to plead that Allied troops were “urgently needed” to fight the Germans in the south.
GERMAN OFFENSIVE AGAINST ALLIES DELAYED? According to the New York Herald Tribune, the “unexpected difficulties” facing the Germans in Norway have delayed the start of a major Nazi offensive on the Western Front. The story cites neutral observers in Berlin as “convinced that Germany planned to have control of Norway as well as Denmark by the end of the first day and then intended to keep things moving by striking toward the west -- though not necessarily at the Maginot line.” But now, the observers say, Hitler’s generals are forced to throw an increasing amount of military weight at subduing the Norwegian army, plus dealing with the growing threat of British troop landings.
As far as what comes next, the Herald Tribune doesn’t offer any new predictions. But I still think the likeliest possibility is that the Nazis will send their troops into Holland with no warning, then use that country’s air bases for an all-out attack on England by warplanes within a few weeks.
DENMARK’S BEING LOOTED. C.B.S.’s William Shirer said in his broadcast from Berlin yesterday morning that several of his German friends have been “watering their mouths” at the prospect of the butter, eggs, and bacon which will soon be brought into Germany from occupied Denmark. Meanwhile, Frank R. Kelley writes in Wednesday’s New York Herald Tribune that the German Army is appropriating Danish food, and more --
“Scarcely had the Nazi invaders established themselves in Denmark, it was said, than the slaughter of Danish pigs, cattle, and other livestock reached mass proportions. At the same time the Germans were said to have begun to strip Copenhagen and other cities of removable metal, such as park railings, traffic stanchions and ornamental objects, in order to feed them into the maw of the war machine.”
Does it surprise anyone that the Germans promised the Danish government a little over a week ago that they were only on hand to “protect” Denmark and would not exploit her resources for the war effort?
HOW NORSE TREASON HELPED HITLER. Several reports have said the Nazi ships which sailed into Oslo Fjord on April 9 were benefited by “mysterious orders” to Norwegian vessels and naval batteries not to fire on the invaders. Other highly-placed “fifth columnists” holding high positions in the Norwegian army are said to have helped German ships land troops at several ports, to have assisted in the seizure of Oslo, etc. But now Donald Day writes in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune that Hitler is backing away from the top Norwegian traitor, Major Vidkun Quisling, who the Germans appointed as premier of the new Oslo government just a few days ago. It seems to be one last attempt by the Nazis to conciliate King Haakon’s government, who just a few days ago Nazi forces were trying to bomb into oblivion. Just maybe the Feuhrer’s getting a little bit worried.
Mr. Day notes new examples of treason in Norway, and what some patriotic Norwegians are doing about it -- “At the Belerne fort, the garrison mutinied and refused to obey a command to surrender. The troops locked up their officers and opened fire on the Germans. They said they sank two destroyers before the fort was put out of action.” On the other hand, the treason apparently is ongoing and continues to harm Norway’s defense effort -- “The Norwegian government has been shocked by the surrender of some military commanders to German forces without resistance. Bewildered and dismayed by false orders and information, other commanders have ceased resisting the German advance.”
BEWARE OF “FIFTH COLUMNS” ELSEWHERE. In his Washington Post column on Wednesday, Barnet Nover seconds the view that Hitler was helped a great deal by Norwegian traitors --
“In his brilliant dispatch to the Chicago Daily News Monday, Leland Stowe, who was present in the Norwegian capital when the German invaders arrived, declares that Oslo was captured not with armed force but by a gigantic conspiracy. In their bold and almost successful bid to dominate the country by a lighting coup, the Nazis apparently depended far less on naval, military and air power than on treachery and sabotage. The results justified the accurance with which they went through with their plans....Oslo, a city of 300,000, was taken by 1,500 men.”
Mr. Nover adds that what happened in Norway constitutes a warning for the remaining neutrals -- “every little nation in Europe knows now what it faces, not only from without, but also from within. The next days and weeks are thus certain to see an elaborate search everywhere in neutral lands for Trojan horses bearing the sign of the swastika. Even at this late date to be forewarned is to be forearmed.”
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