NEW PHASE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 115, 13 April 1940, Page 7

NEW PHASE

CHANCE FOR ALLIES. CRUSH GERMANY. OPINION IN BRITAIN. ( United Press Association —By ElectricTelegraph—Copyright. ) (British Official Wireless.) Received April 13, 9.40 a.m. RUGBY, April 12. , The measured and confident survey of the First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr Churchill) lias helped the public to place the events of the week in some sort of perspective. Opinion on the new phase of the conflict opened by Hitler’s latest aggression is crystallising on the lines that, while the extension of the front presents the Allies with opportunities the timely use of which might well prove decisive, these opportunities will only be realised, as Mr Churchill said, provided the Allies act “with unceasing and increasing vigour.”

There will be no encouragement here of optimism led on rumour or of the view that an easy victory is to be snatched from these events. What is generally agreed to be Hitler’s mistake may well prove fatal ultimately, but only the courage of Norwegian resistance and the force of Allied support will prevent it from l>eing retrieved by the German armed forces, which can still be relied upon to execute efficiently and ruthlessly the plans methodically and long-prepared without regard for any consideration but military advantage. The latest advices suggest that the Norwegians, after the first shock, arc rallying round their King and Govern ment in a determination to resist. At the same time, the accounts of the Nazi bombing raids on towns and villages prove that the Nazi Command intends to crush the resistance, if it can. by methods of terrorism and barbaritv. DIVERSION HINTED. Discussion of the Scandinavian issue extends to the possibility that it may be used as a diversion for a new attack in another direction. An example of the terrorist methods which Germany employs against the nationals of countries “taken under her protection” is afforded by an Oslo radio announcement that the German High Command lias issued a warning that any person caught firing against the German forces will be treated as a franctireur and shot—despite the fact that Norway is at war with Germany. The broadcast added that some persons had already been shot. The Press Association reports that the New York Sun publishes a cartoon showing a long necked Hitler protruding from a gun marked “blitzkreig” on which sits a triumphant lion whose tail is knotted around the Hitlerian neck. The title is: “He stuck his neck out.”

Kong reports that the British have detained ]1 Danish and Norwegian ships. The British Navy is understood io l>e gathering 40 'others at present on the China coast to bring here.