Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-06-13
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS REVIEW
Continued from Page u

Continued from Page u
was delivered, an order was issued
to give Rome its first blackout.
Now Italy is in the war. And
it seems plausible to expect that
Italian forces will move against
Paris from the south while the
German armies are closing in on
the French capital from the north.
For, back of the newest Italian
development is the dark situation
which has developed on the French
| front where what is described as the
greatest battle in history is in pro-
greSS.
Nearer Paris.
The Germans having conquered
Holland and Belgium and having
overrun Luxembourg as well as
driven out the British expeditionary
force from the continental coast of
the English Channel, have so manipu-
lated their tremendous armed forces
as to seriously endanger Paris. Paris
means France.
Ever closer and closer the Ger
mans are coming to Paris; at the
moment of writing some of their
farthest advance points are between
25 and 80 miles from the French
capital, and it seems to be matter
of merely few days when they will
raise the sWastiska flag above the
public buildings of the city on the
Seine river.
There is at the moment moth
ing to indicate that the attack
on Paris will be stopped. If it
succeeds, London will be next,
and if Italian forces move with
those of Hitler, the fate of Lon
don is likely to be sealed.
Even in the allied capitals it is
admitted that the situation looks ex-
tremely dark, and in London one
| spokesman for the British govern
ment even went SO far as to say that
the prospects were gloomier now than
they were during even the blacklist
hours of the war of 1914.
In German Hands.
The third outstanding event of the
last few days was the official and
complete capitulation of Norway to
the Germans. It did not take the
Germans more than couple of weeks
to occupy the southern and central
part of Norway, but in the northern
part of that country they met with
or %
Finally, however, Narvik was
Wrested away from the Germans by
the Norwegian troops and a handful
of allied soldiers were left there when
the bulk of the British and French
expeditionary forces had been forced
to withdraw. The retreating Ger
mans attacked the railroad between
Narvik and the Norwegian-Swedi
frontier, and last Saturday the allied
remnants gave up resistance.
1t was at this moment that King
HaakOn, voluntarily sequestered
at Troms0, decided that the time
had come for peace. So he and
the JOhan NygaardsvOld cabinet
the German government, de-
manding, however, that the re-
treating allied soldiers be not
mOlested on their escape from
northern Norway. To that de-
mand the Germans appear to
have acceded.
The king and Crown Prince Olav
then left Norwegian soil, and some
time early this week arrived in Lon
don.
Whether Haakon will ever again
become king of Norway and Olav the
country's crown prince is a question
which, to use a term of Anthony
Eden's, ''rests in the lap of the gods"
German Triumphs.
Just now, in the darkest hours of
the war, the British and the French
seem to find some solace in the fact
that the German loss of manpower
has been tremendous. No doubt it
has. But the one remaining. and the
very definite, fact is that Germany
has triumphed right along, taking
country after country, and now pene-
trating deep into France itself. I'm
der these recognized circumstances
hopes are merely wishful thinking.
And eyes turn toward the
United States: Will this country
become involved in the war?
Will Hitler move on the United
States?
There is no indication that he will.
If move he does, he will probably
operate through the Latin-American
countries, and that is, just now, a
very remote possibility. But the gov
eminent and the people of the United
States are steeling themselves for
any emergency, and while there is
no outspoken desire that the coun-
try involve itself in the European
conflicts, there is an increasing de-
mand that the allied countries be
helped with men and machines.
For, it is realized, more than ever