Evening star., 1940-04-11

HOUSE OF Commons today bN Fu
Churchill tollo,Ds::
am sure I shall receive the in
dulgence of the House II there
!, should by any chance be any minor
! error in fact or detail in the state
ment am going to make or II 1t
had not received that thorough and
! prolonged preparation which I have
/ always endeavored to give to any
/ observations I have ventured to
+ address to the House.
We are working under very sharp
, pressure at the present time, but I
J have been most anxious to give the
!, House the fullest possible informa-
! tion agreeable with the public in
terests.
The strained, unnatural calm Of
the last fews weeks was violently
/ broken on Monday morning by the
German invasion of Norway and
I Denmark, which had been long and
elaborately prepared and was ac-
tually set in motion in the last week
Of March.
Information Received
For Several Months.
For several months past we have
received information of large num-
.bers of German merchant ships
being fitted as transports and numer-
sous small vessels being assembled in
various Baltic ports and also in the
sriver mouths of the Elbe, but no one
scould tell when they would be used
Aor against what possible enemies
they would be used. Holland, Den
mark, Norway and Sweden-all were
sas it seemed liable to sudden, bru-
stal, capricious and, in any case, un-
provoked attack.
/ Which would be selected as the
first victim or where the blow would
strike remained inevitably a matter
.of pure speculation. The Nazi Ger
man government Is accustomed to
spread through all these channels a
continuous flow of rumors.
I There are put forth by all their
agents in neutral countries, by
shangers-on in the legations and
embassies and other sympathizers
and hackers wherever they may be
found.
My remarks have no particular
personal applications, but all these
countries had been threatened, and
as the German government are not
restrained by lies, and as they have
an obvious preference for striking
at the weak rather than the strong,
all the small countries on their
borders were and still are in high
state of alarm.
Learned of Move
Early Monday.
Even those neutrals who have
done the most to placate Germany
and were the greatest aid to her
could not feel any sense of security
that they would not be attacked
without any reason and without
any warning and swiftly overrun
and reduced to bondage and pillage
of their property and especially all
eatables.
In all those most unfortunate
countries not one Of them could tell
which would be the next to be de-
voured.
In the small hours of Monday
morning we learned that Norway
and Denmark had drawn the un-
lucky numbers III this sinister lot
terry. Denmark, Of course, had spe-
.cial reasons for apprehension not
only because she was the nearest
and weakest Of Germany's neigh
bors, but because she had recent
treaties with Germany which guar
anteed her from all molestation, and
because she engaged in active COM
merce both with Germany and
Great Britain, the continuance of
which In time of war had been
foreseen by Germany and guaran-
teed by special trade arrangements
between the German and Danish
governments.
This obviously placed her in q
position of peculiar danger. The
extraordinary configuration of the
Norwegian Coast provides a kind of
corridor or covered way, as every
one knows, through which neutral
trade and German ships of all kinds
-warships and others-could move
to and fro through the allied block
ade into the territorial waters of
Norway and Sweden until they came
under the effective protection of the
German home air forces in North
Germany.
Legal Covered Way
Greatest Advantage.
They could go to and fro along
this route without molestation. Ex-
istence of this geographical and
legal covered way has been the
greatest disadvantage which we have
suffered and the greatest advantage
which Germany possessed in her
efforts to frustrate the allied block
ade. Warships moved up and down
It as they thought convenient. u
boats used it as they thought fit.
Stray German liners and merchant
ships trying to get back to Ger
many from outer seas followed this
route, which is over 300 miles long
and can be entered or quilted at any
convenient point.
There has been no greater i'm
pediment to the blockade of Ger
many than this Norwegian corridor.
It was so in the last war and has
been so in this war. The British
Navy has been forced to watch an
endless procession of German and
neutral ships carrying contraband
of all kinds to Germany which at
any moment it could have stopped.
During the last war, when we were
associated with the United States,