AMERICAN PRESS DERIDES GERMANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 February 1940, Page 5

AMERICAN PRESS DERIDES GERMANY

“Miscast Role of Pious Plaintiff” BRITISH NAVAL ACTION APPLAUDED MORALLY AND PROBABLY LEGALLY RIGHT (Press Association and British Official Wireless.) LONDON, February 20. The Berlin correspondent ol the “Daily Mail says that, the Norwegian Minister, Air Scheel, has handed to the German Foreign Office an aide memoire stating that Norway'. intends Io submit the Altmarck incident to the League ol Nations. In Paris the Bourse, responded vigorously to the. British naval enterprise shown in the incident, and there were frequent, cries of ‘‘Vive Churchill!’’ . ■ The American Press derides Berlin in its “miscast role, ol: the pious plaintiff against a breach ol international law. Even the Hearst Press applauds the raid as “brilliantly conceived and daringly executed.” All American comment maintains that the British were certainly morally and probably legally right. - . Mr Hearst’s “Now York Daily Mirror” says: “It is pointless talking about international law. The drama and daring of the raid have won over American public opinion.” The British action over the Altmarck has delighted the peoples of the Danube countries and the Balkans, and Britons are stopped and congratulated in the streets ol Belgrade. In Berlin the official view is that, now England has transferred the war to neutral soil and a completely new military situation has arisen, of which Germany will take the Inllest advantage.