The Wilmington morning star., 1940-04-14

and the DAYS 90 by. The immediate strategic
bearing of the struggle hardly neeos fe,e1,
phasis. If the Germans make gooo thelr holu
on Norway's Atlantic coast and the ral exits
from all scandinavia, the Allied blockade IN
left in ruins: the Allies will have to go much
farther afield for the supplies they nave oeen
getting from Scandinavia, thus putting d niuch
heavier strain on their sea colhnuhlca'lol
while Hitler will have incomparapiy oe.'el
bases from which to carry on MS wal asdinsl
those communications. If, on the oher manu-
the Allies retake the country, they can MAKE
their blockade of strangling effect; they snoulo
be able to force the passage 10 lhe oal'c,
while their air, sea and land bases VIII slanu
Immediately over many vital German ceh'els III
which the Germans remained completely seouie
throughout the World war.
Clear victory for one side or the other might
he enough, in it's direct effects, to decide the
war. But the indirect effects, already being
registered in Italy, down the Danube ana IN
reports from the Bessarabian frontier, may
be no less important. The ltallan poIlcy OIL
acknowledgements involves a special difficulty.
If it's aim is, as most believe, to come down
on whichever side is going to Wln' IN time 10
profit by the victory, the decision cannot be
POSTPONED too long. The choice must be made
inst before the outcome is obvious; if 1t is
made Just afterWard one gets small thanks Tor
it from the victor. If Hitler makes good his
hold on Norway, Mussolini cannot hesitate
much longer.
Hungary. Yugoslavia and Rumania, being
threatened by the Russians on the one side
and repeatedly faced from the other with a
German demand for control of the Danube,
can hesitate even less. With yet another PROOF
before them of Franco-British inability to de-
fend the small neutrals, they will have to jump
for whatever terms they can make with Ger
maryland will be inclined to jump the more
quickly to get German protection against
p,,srio IF thev do the Allies will be faced with
an overwhelming coalition, and Hitler will
have the hegemony of Europe within his grasp.
If, on the other hand, the Allies can reduce
the Norwegian assault promptly to a flasco,
Hitler will have received the first great blow
to his prestige in the whole course OF his
career as dictator; the Allies can prop up the
southeastern and Mediterranean position at
once, and, for the first time perhaps, reduce
the Nazis to a really precarious situation.
Such are the grave issues hanging on the
Battle of Norway; and they are so grave that
it seems impossible that this battle should not
rapidly widen, in one direction or another, into
the "total' war which all sides have so far
eschewed. Until now the war has been rather
like q chess game in its opening stages, when
the board is so filled with pieces that the
moves are necessarily slow and undramatic.
But the p~awns-Poland and Finland and Den
mark and Norway-have been falling fast, the
board is clearing, the combinations are being
established and the sweeping moves are be-
coming more and more unavoidable, whether
the strategists want to make them or not.
We are facing critical and perhaps bloody
and destructive times. No one can predict
their decision. Ones faith in the cause Of the
Allies may continue and hope for their ulti-
mate success be firm. But victory for the de-
mocracies was never, in a military sense, in
evitable. AS the rival forces come to grips it is
obvious that Nazi Germany may win the war.