May 17. was on this day in 1814, at the little Jand town of Eldsvoll, some forty" miles north of Oslo that the Norwegian national assembly promulgated the fundamental Jaw: (orwndtov), which has since been altered in detail at various times, upon which the con stitution of Norway rests. Earlier in that year Norway had been ceded to Sweden by Denmark, "with the sanction of the Great Powers who were privy to the scheme. That union continued until June 7, 1905, when it was dissolved and Norway' achieved full autonomy. Consequently, May 17 has come to be looked upon as a national holiday, the anniversary of Constitution Day. It is well that such a day should be remembered in times like these, for they are landmarks in the history of & brave people, and an encouragement of faith in the ultimate liberal tion of their country. There are two classes of Norwegians to whom the thoughts of many must (urn on this day, those suffering beneath the brutality of the Nazis in their home country, and those abroad, forced to look upon the iniquities perpetrated upon their fellow countrymen, wishing that they could be with them in thelt time of tral.
Mr. Trygve Lie, Norwegian Foreign Minister, in a recent article to the "Evening Standard" wrote For the time being. however, it is our people at home who are having' to fight at Elore gripe with the German invaders and their Quisling puppets. Tt Isa hard and dan-porous fight, Decale {t must be conducted by an. unarmed people against. an occupation Power which has every modern weapon. at its Command: yet It isa ght which Te caryled on unceasingly without finching.
"rhine of the courage of thors members of the Supreme Court of Norway, who resigned ina body rather then allow our proud. Nor-Wweglan traditions of Justice to be prostituted {o the contemptible chicanery of Nazi Diktats! 'Those men knew that henceforth they would marked men, their every movement spied fon bythe Gestapo and its, Quisling. lackey', the concentration camp, and perhaps the excutioner's axe walling ready for the. Arai false step—yet they could dono other For there i" something which we Norwegians wil! bever stand, and that is interference with our long-standing rights of self-government and, independent initiative, Nowhere. in the World could the Fuehrer-prinaip have' less Chance of success than in Norway.
Those are the bold words of a Minister of a bold people—"There is something which we Norwegians will never stand and that interference with our long-standing rights of self-government and independent initia There is a declaration that the Norwegians in their resistance to the Germans are animated by precisely the same motives which Ted the democracies into war with the most evil system of government the civilized world has ever seen. That resistance in. Norway. itself, just as much as by the Norwegians other parts of the world is real, so real that it is. giving the Germans cause. for much anxiety. Today in Norway the loyal. people are fighting a silent war; it is none the less crucial one for the whole struggle against Naziism, for: Norway is one of the principal experimental grounds for the "new order." But Hitler is losing the battle. Not only is Quisting, that national Judas Iscariot, an object of contempt, but the German soldiers, fof whom there are 300,000 in Norway, are being' demoralized by icy hostility "and nioekery wherever they g0.
Th Britain the Norwegian Government func tions, young men of Norway are training for the time when they will have the opportunity of meeting the Germans again. The Nor wegian Navy plays its part in the fects of the. Allies, andthe mercantile marine is Worthily helping in the defence of democracy. Norwegians throughout the world are doing their utmost to support the only Government which they care to know. Inspired as they' are with loyalty to their King, and to. all those ideals which free men hold so dear! they are carrying on a struggle in a manner! which demands the admiration of the whole world, save those people bemused by. the! false doctrines of Hitler. In a recent speech, Crown Prine Dav said "If we who are beyond her (Norway's) borders are now the ones mote able to plan actively for the day of emancipation, our comrades back home! fre those who faust bear the even heavier burden of preserving the Norwegian way of life under the most hopeless circumstances."
to those Norwegians at home and abroad that the felicitations of their Allles will go on this historic day, with the firm confidence that the, time will come when Norway, together with the other victorious Allies, will again come into her own.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.