Though the situation in Norway has been by no means clarified by the latest despatches, it is possible to make some guesses as to the German plans for the future. And these plans look by no means well for Sweden. In venturing as far north as Narvik, the Germans were obviously running big risks, but Narvik has additional importance to being the port from Which the iron ore of Sweden can be shipped to the Reich. It is the northern terminus of the railway which runs through Sweden and Norway from Lulea. It could, therefore, in the event of a major campaign in Scandinavia, be a most important point in a line of communications. Significance is also attached to the German occupation of Trondheim and Bergen, in addition to the possibilities of these ports being used as bases for submarine and aircraft attacks on the British Isles and on British navigation. Bergen is the terminus of a railway line which runs to Oslo, and thence links up With a maze lof lines which form the backbone of the communications in southern Sweden. Trondheim is also the terminus of a line. This line runs to the: west to join another line which eventually reaches Oslo, thereby becoming one of the most important sections of Norway's communications system. But it also—and more is the pity for Sweden—is the terminus for a direct line which runs from Norway into Sweden at Storlien and thence to the Swedish coast on the Gulf of Bothnia. It should be noted that the German attacks from the Oslo region have been principally directed towards the south, towards the Swedish border. It is true that the entrance to the Oslo ford is thereby safeguarded, but a more ominous interpretation—that it presages an invasion of Sweden in order to open up routes of reinforcement for the German forces in Norway—is more likely. Railway lines run from the southernmost points of Sweden, which are accessible to the Germans in spite of the mining of the Skagerrak and the Kattegat, right up to (he Norwegian border. What, then, are the chances of Sweden, when the Reich has seized and is trying to hold the Norwegian termini of railways which run through the country? The fear is justified that Hitler, on one or another of his notorious: excuses, may shortly seize the Swedish termini of these lines, and bring death and destruction on that people, as well as the Norwegians.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.