The bewilderment caused by the claims and counter-claims as to the war in Norway, which 1s not at all clarified by the official communiques issued by both sides, is only natural. It should be remembered, however, that Shanghai is on a par with other neutral places, such as South America, and must get the news from both sides and must do its best to sift out of the welter of claims what is reasonable. Long study of the claims by the different sides in this war tends to the belief that the bulletins issued from London are reliable—and nothing else. Stockholm reports are plain newspaper reports, which is to say nothing against them except that they have probably been sent out without sufficient verification, owing to the time factor which makes the earlier news report the more valuable, no matter whether the later report is the more accurate. For Allies, enemy, and neutral are alike anxious in this part of the world to find out what is really going on. It is understandable from the Allies' point of view that the news should be obscured. Hitler's amateur strategy has let a large force of German troops in for something which his professional advisers would probably never have ventured. But what the Allies intend to do to this foolishly ventured force cannot be published, even if it were known. What was formerly a gold mine for newspaper enterprise thus automatically becomes nothing more than a series of official communiques, The question is which communiques to believe. The German announcements have erred to the extent that it can only be believed that Herr Hitlers megalomania has spread to his staff—a by no means unlikely eventuality, Readers are therefore advised to follow carefully the official announcements made from London. For a number of reasons which those who know how and why newspapers are produced, understand, these announcements cannot be immediately forthcoming, and their place must be taken by despatches from other sources, close to the scene of the conflict, but lacking any more confirmation than can be got by a correspondent who is limited to the news and gossip available at a. headquarters in the middle of a moving fighting zone, which is naturally confined to what is happening in the sector with which the correspondent and the general staff concerned are most intimately connected. If readers wish to know what, out of a welter of news, they can believe, they can be assured that the British bulletins, though possibly late, contain nothing that can be denied.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.