Sunday Post - 22.09.1940, Blaðsíða 2

2
SUNDAY POST
WHO’D BE A NEUTRAL?
SWEDEN IN THE NUTCRACKERS.
SUNDAY POST
is issued by S. Benediktsson
publisher of Daily Post.
Office: AlpySuprentsmiSjan
h.f. Teleph. 4905. Reykjavik.
When we ask ourselves
what we are fighting for
we find there are two distinct
answers. The first one is very
simple, it is “England” or “The
British Commonwealth of Na-
tions”.
The second answer most of
us would give is “To rid the
world of Fascism”.
If we tell ourselves that
these two things are one and
the same we are making a very
dangerous mistake about the
nature of Fascism.
There is a real that Brit-
ain will cease to be a free
country because honest and
patriotic Englishmen become
so obsessed with our first rea-
son for fighting the war that
they forget the second.
That is what happened in
France. We could do well to
remember what happened to
her. Press censorship, restric-
tion of free speech, drastic ac-
tion against suspect elements
— these were concieved with
the best possible intentions
but they went too far and de-
feated their own ends.
Intended to strengthen her
internally they ended by pav-
ing the way for her betrayers.
Remember Duff-Coopers “si-
lent column”? Keep your
mouth shut and sneak on your
neighbour if he opens his. That
is exactly the system we are
fighting, the system of the Ge-
stapo. The “silent column”
idea has been properly and
promptly squashed but there is
more where it came from. The
new press censorship for exam-
ple by which any paper can be
suppressed without any reason
being given. True it has only
been used so far against the
“Daily Worker” but remember
that the road that led Germany
to the German-Soviet Pact
started with suppression of
communist papers.
It is not for the soldier, who
must defend his country with
his back to it, to deal with these
things. It is the civilians at
home, and above all for Parlia-
ment who must stop the rot,
who must show Sir John An-
derson that Englishmen must
be treated differently from
Bengalese. But it matters very
much to us — ask any French
soldier whether it matters. Let
us hope — and there is reason
to do so — that we get a better
deal than they did.
From a correspondant recently
in Sweden.
On the Face of it, it looks
good. Sweden is the only
country in northern Europe
that has not experienced
war or Foreign occupation
during the last year. Poland,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Finland, Denmerk, Norway,
Holland, Belgium, and Fran-
ce, have all experienced one
or the other, or both. But
Sweden has steered clear —
so far.
But her future outlook is
pretty grim. One danger is ob-
vious to an Englishman. The
Germans are in Norway and
might easily invade Sweden
and get her iron and food re-
serves. But that is not the only
danger that Swedes have had
and still have to face. True, the
scare promoted by a German
White Paper that the English
intended to march into the iron
ore mines from Narvik has
been banished. But there is still
the danger from Russia. Swedes
hate Russia; they have crusad-
ed against her throughout their
history, and think of her as the
power of darkness, enemy of
all civilization. Even the May
Day celebrations this year were
turned into a demonstration of
National Unity in Stockholm.
To face these two dangers,
Sweden has taken all obvious
precautions. She is building up
her army. She has increased
her fleet by the purchase of
Aglophile Snaebjom Jonsson
tells us that his scheme for
exchanging Ice'aodic wi;h English
lessons is proving a success.
Ever since his letter appeared in
“Sunday Post” a fortnight ago
there has been a continuous
stream of enquiries at the English
Bockshop. At first there were
more British soldiers than he
could deal with, but the position
is now reversed and there is at
present a waiting list of Ice-
landers. This state of affairs
however is mot likely to last
long so anyone interested in this
----------♦-----------
four destroyers from Italy. She
has mined the archipelago out-
side Stockholm. She is hus-
banding her petrol supplies to
the extent of banning all pri-
vate cars and turning buses
and taxis over to producer gas.
She is guarding her airports,
and has tunnelled ultraeffici-
ent Air Raid shelters in the
rock hills of Stockholm to such
an extent that in her newest
and biggest hospital every pa-
tient can have his bed taken
down to a bomb-proof shelter.
But even with all these pre-
parations Sweden could hardly
resist German invasion from
the Norwegian frontier. Her
air force is too small, and as at
Oslo the staff of the German
Legation is suspiciously large.
Yet as Germany can now get
all the iron ore she wants, and
has forced Sweden to permit
the passage of German troops
through her territory, she
might not think it worth while
suffering heavy losses to sub-
due the country completely, —
that is, if she is not forced to.
Forced? Yes, dear old uncle
Adolf may actually be forced
to occupy a neutral country in
self-defence. For his friend and
ally M. Stalin may not play
fair. The Finnish adventure is
by no means over. M. Molotov
has now presented his generals
with a nice broad front and
good communications, so as to
give them a better chance
against the Finns next time.
And the Finns, though they are
exellent way of learning the lan-
guage free and at the same time
getting to 'know the Icelanders
personally is advised to call at
the English Book shop as soon as
possible.
Po' aly few people in Eng’and
have much idea of the Bri-
tish force in Iceland though they
are occasionally enlightened by
an article or photograph here
and there and of course by that
famous question in Parliament
about our welfare. One of the
still fierce Russian-haters and
are prepared to use their
knives, have an enemy within
their gate. The communists who
tried to astablise a Soviet in
1918 and have since been sup-
pressed several times occasion-
ally demonstrate in Helsinki,
and the government cannot
protest because of Russia. Tan-
ner, the War Finance Minister
has resigned, and though Man-
nerheim still leads the army,
we may sure that he has no
desire to let the communists
act as a “casus belli” and force
him to fight another war
without an ally. For in the long
run even he could be defeated
by sheer weight of numbers.
Then Adolf would have to
“protect” Sweden so as to
check his friend and ally. So
Sweden is with Finland in the
nutcrackers, and together they
will stand or fall, — whether
as allies or mere friends re-
mains to be seen. Throughout
the summer rumours of ulti-
mata have been buzzing in
Stockholm. Ladies “in the
know” will not let a house or ga
for holiday till the latest “der
Tag” is past. For the tension is
high, and high it will remain
till Germany can afford to
break with Russia or England
cease to be cut off by Norway.
No wonder that in Stockholm
everyone hopes and prays and
that whoever is to win this war
will win it quickly. For guard-
ing neutrality is a desperate
job, — especially in the nutc-
rackers.
points in the answer to that ques-
tion if you remember was that
an E. N. S. A. concert party was
Jabut to be sent out here. Since
then many of us have wondered
where they were. We can now
give a partial answer to that
question. At least we can tell yoa
where they were last Tuesday
They were broadcasting from
London. Unfortunately we only
tuned in to the end of the broad-
cast so we cannot' tell you what
to look forward to; but perhaps
the party will soon be able to
tear themselv away from the
air-raids and other delights of
Blighty and we shall hear for
ourselves.
Here and There