April 17.
'The announcement made in' London on 'Monday night to the effect that British forces had Tanded at several points on the Norwegian coast is one of the most gratifying pieces of news which has been liberated Since. the beginning of the war. Not only oes it prove the Allies' willingness to hon-four their promises to threatened neutral bhut it demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt the untruth of the German claim to hold command of the North Sea, and establishes Instead complete Allied contro! of those waters, Were that not the case the Aespateh of British forces to land in Norway would have been the height of imprudence. The fact that such troops have been con~ woyed across the North Sea without molesta~ Yien to make successful landing is all. the evidence necessary (0 show what a damaging blow has been struck against the German navy, of which authoritative naval circles London claim the effective strength consists now of no more than one battle cruiser, possibly one pocket battleship, one light cruiser, eleven destroyers and about half the number of U-boats with which Germany entered the war. The wastage as a result of the naval actions of last week is such that Germany cannot hope to replace it for a very" considerable time to come. Cori~ sequently, with the huge mine field which has been Inid and the powerful convoys, which possible to give the British troops in transit across the North Sea, what might have tured out: in, other circumstances. to boa particularly perilous undertaking has been accomplished with greater safety than that. which attended the comparatively simpler move by the Germans. Attempts are being made by the German propaganda machine to minimize the extent of the re~ verses which have been inflicted upon the German navy,, but these cannot possibly succeed in face of the fact that the British Tanding on Norwegian shores hax been accomplished. Stubborn facts such as these ofy even the versatile German propagand-fats to explain away, For all: practical purposes, if this London estimate is correct,—and there is every rea son to believe it is—the German navy has virtually been wiped out, and should rio longer be reckoned on as an important factor in the future development of the war. It 1s claimed that the British troops have the occupied Narvik, That awaits confirma~ lon, but whether that is so or not, the fact that the Allies can exercise a complete Dlockade of that port deprives the Germar of at least a quarter of their total ore sup~ plies coming from Sweden, considerably damaging the fron industry' of Germany which has to depend upon the high grade Swedish ore to mix with its domestic low grade ore in order to permit the basic opera tion of the Bessemer or Thomas processes the very foundation of the steel industry. That in itself is a shattering blow which will become even more devastating should Germany seck to invade Sweden, when all supplies would be cut off, even those trans~ ported through the Baltic. Indeed the only safeguard which Sweden has at the moment is that very fact, for a Sweden at war most certainly would make sure that none of her raw materials would reach her enemy, while in the event of defeat the destruction of the iron fields would obviously follow. When these facts are borne in mind it is clear that Herr Hitler has very dangerously overreached himself, and he has opened the way for the Allies to administer further blows, and such 'a8 should contribute largely to the' confdently expected German defeat. Apart from the purely strategical aspects of the affair, there is the psychological side of the matter to be considered, The British landing on the Norwegian coast should have the effect of encouraging those other neutrals, who may. in turn be threatened, to take up arms, and resist German aggression. They have been shown that the Allies are not only willing, but anxious to go to their assistance should they require it. Much has been made of the contention that the Allles did not go to the aid of Poland. It only requires a glance at any map to show why this should have been the case, especially when in the instance of Finland, the Scandinavian countries, in endeavour to maintain a neutrality' which
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.