DENMARK AND THE WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, 2 October 1916, Page 4

DENMARK AND THE WAR

INTERVIEW WITH, MR LESTIt'T 1'

.Speakim; to-day t<> a. '.Mail reporteii Mr Sigurd Lestrup, who is ;i Jieutenanlt in the Danish army, had some .inter<\4ting iiuormation to give conce) •'ir.", his oiwimtry, and her attitude in regard to ttbe war. Hr was emp'hat: lating tlhat Denmark would not actively participate •in tlio war. Denmark's sympathies [undoubtedly are. with the ..Allies, but tier wisest policy was a continuation of i si. tralitv. For one thin:;;- Denmark's arihi-y nuniibers only 100.COO. and' then- is niso still a strong i'coliritr again.--! Germany for her conquest, of the provinces '■of SchJeswifj and Holstein in the war 'if 1'864-{9. ' ISin-oo the conquest, Ci'rmaii oppression in S'chleswig, where nn attempt was made to entirely suppress the Danish language, has been bitterly resented by the Danish people of that State an-j. also 'by those in the homeland. Mr 'Lestrup, who keeps in close touch with events and opinion in Denmark, says that without entering the war Denmark will recover her lost province of 'Sehleswig, as this will be one of the terms of peace which the Allies will impose, while Holstcin, with the Kiel Canal, will become a neutral zone. Mr '.Lestrup referred to the .great love of the Danislt people for Queen Alexandra, and also for her sister the arid he went on to say that it was the Prussian against whom the Danes were so bitter—not the southern Germans. The feeling in Denmark) was that it was the Prussian, war party who desired' and forced on the war, and not the Gorman .people as a whole. The Danes, though aware of the German 'strenstn, never had any doitbt as to the ultimate victory of the Allies.