Evening star., 1940-04-24
Sweden's Turn Now?

from the moment Germany violated
the neutrality of Denmark and Nor
way, todays news of an apparently
impending Nazi invasion of Sweden
may come to some with all the force
of tremendous shock. It's impact is
broken, as far as the rapidly shrink
Ing neutral portion of the world is
concerned, by what would lie behind
such an additional example of Hit
lerian aggression.
II 1t be borne out during the next
few hours that there was, as report
ed, heavy fighting yesterday in the
Skagerrak, off the southwestern
Swedish coast, between British de-
stroyers and German troopships with
their conveying air and surface craft,
it can mean only that Nazi military
needs in Scandinavia are urgent.
The Germans require immediate and
substantial reinforcements for their
hard-pressed troops in Norway. Such
aid can only be sent across Sweden,
because of allied control of the Nor
wegian North Sea coast, so it would
appear logical that Hitler's general
staff is ready to gamble on war with
the SWedes in order to insure the
Reich indispensable supplies of iron
ore from the Kiruna and Gellivare
mines at the far north of the Scandi-
navian peninsula.
Bulletins about naval encounters
off Sweden's southern shores are like
most Of the war news from the Scan
dinavian theater for the past fort
night. They are heavily censored,
contradictory and for the most part
unconfirmed. Mainly the accounts
OF accomplished or threatened Ger
man invasion of Sweden are boil
stored by the hectoring tone of the
controlled Nazi press, which is now
belaboring the Swedes and their
government with dire warnings of
what betides them at the hands
OF IAN aspersed German Army" if
the Swedish public continues to
listen to "Jewish-Norwegian" libels
on the honor of Nazi soldiery. The
truculent reference is to alleged
Swedish newspaper accounts of Nazi
atrocities on Norwegian civilians, by
air bombings and otherwise.
Hitler's grievance against the
Stockholm government is, of course,
OF quite different origin It springs
from the stern notice served on the
Germans that they may expect the
warmest kind of reception from
Sweden's small but efficient army,
navy and air force if the Nazis ven-
ture to visit upon the strongest Of
the three Scandinavian kingdoms
the fate to which Denmark and
Norway were subjected. In other
words, King Gustav's sturdy people
will not be intimidated by German
saber-rattling. They will resist CO.
ercion tooth and nail That the
maximum of allied assistance will
be rendered to the Swedes goes with
out saying. The British guns that
roared in the skagerrak On Tuesday
testify to that.
Germans and Swedes have met in
battle before, when Gustavus Adol-
phus led his hosts during the Thirty
Years War against Prussia (1618-
1648), protracted campaign which
left the Swedes in possession of no
inconsiderable portion of the Baltic
region of what is now the Third
Reich. Realizing the tragic fate
which would befall them if Hitlers
armed hordes were to become
masters of the whole Scandinavian
peninsula, the SWedes of today could
be expected to put up a fight worthy
In all respects of their progenitors of
the seventeenth century. The cause
that called them to battle then
differs from the emergency which
confronts Sweden today, but through
the veins of her people flows the
same brave and tenacious blood that
humbled Wallenstein and many
another German Army commander
on Thirty Years War battlefields.