DENMARK TO-DAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 20, 23 February 1942, Page 5

DENMARK TO-DAY

NO FRIEND OF NAZIS HITLER'S "ORDER" A FIASCO "What oi' Denmark?" asks the foreign editor of the London Daily Mail. "Little has been heard of that country since it surrendered in April, 1940, when- 30 miles of German troop columns moved across the Danish frontier and thousands of German soldiers swarmed from the holds of 'innocent' colliers on to the quays of Copenhagen. "Because Denmark bowed to the inevitable, that sturdy little country, bound by ties of Royal blood and democratic tradition to Britain, is not our ally., A legal Government still sits in Copenhagen. The King is still at the head of his people, riding out from. Amalienborg on horseback in the mornings with a grave smile for the poorest of his subjects. "There is no provisional Danish Government in London, but there is a Danish Council, a body of elected representatives of the Free Danes, whose purpose is to support Britain in the struggle against Hitler* and to assert the position of Denmark alongside that of Norway and other Allied countries. "Fight Follows Surrender" "But what of Denmark itself? A document just published, founded on first-hand information, reveals about the country which Hitler chose to be the show-piece of his New Order. "This document, entitled 'Denmark—Fight Follows Surender,' by F. M). Terkelscn, is issued by the Danish Council, with a benedictory foreword by Mr Attlce, who points out that resistance by this tiny island State 'would have amounted to a suicidal self-sacrifice which no true friend would ever have asked of it.' "Truer than in Hamlet's day is the observation now that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark, but that rottenness is not among the Danish people.

''There has been open resistance; but more 1 effective has been the dogged way in which the Danish Government lias so far continued to function and has steered many of Denmark's democratic institutions through the crisis 'so that ther machinery will continue to function when the German collapse occurs.'

"Mr Terkelsen does not conceal the dangers. 'There are observers who think that the democratic idea is being undermined and polluted through the present contact with the Nazis, and that a political showdown is to be preferred.' Hitler's "Showpiece" "But the fact remains that the Danish Nazi Party, led by Denmark's own quisling, Frits Clausen, has not taken over the Government; neither is the German army is complete control. x "Of course, Hitler has regarded Denmark as a very special case. It was to be 'a showpiece in the shop window' of Hitler's, New Europe. Denmark would show the world how the Ne\v t Order would work if Hitler ever got an opportunity to realise his day-dreams. "The Germans hoped to make themselves 'systematisch beliebt'— systematicaly beloved in Denmark. This, says Mr Terkelsen, was how they saw it: 'Here we have a wealthy little country, rich in butter and produce. No guns. The Danes are an. easy-going lot. They will not make trouble if we stroke them nicely. Let us show the other neutrals that the Nazis and the New Order are better than they are said to- be. Nation Ruined "And so on the surface Denmark was little changed after the German occupation. Yet, after IS months of the New Order, 'this little Canaan among nations is ruined.' " 'Its famous agricultural system is falling to pieces'—the number of pigs has been reduced from 3,200,000 head to 1,700,000 —'industrial plants lie idle from shortage of raw material and coal, unemployment is kept down only by a multitude of artificial measures, the German debt to Denmark is accumulating day by day—and Denmark is not yet impressed by the benefits of the New Order. They are difficult, these Danes!' "The truth is, of course, that from the very beginning, despite an appearance of surrendering to the inevitable, the Danes refused to play. "In 1940-41," declared Mr Terkel(Continued in next column)

sen. "Denmark found her soul.*' / "-So, although the lights have gone out in Copenhagen—where, in the Tivoli Gardens, that republic of revelry, rich and poor alike could pnter for 6d, and stare at the splendour of illuminated fountains, si If. and eat good Danish fare and watch/ the ballet, or look up and see witches riding broomsticks among the stars —although the invader is billeted in the pavilions, and all that once-happy land is under the heel. Denmark is Britain's ally in all bufc name."