VARIOUS REACTIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 May 1940, Page 6

VARIOUS REACTIONS

TO BRITISH PRIME MINISTER’S STATEMENT DELIGHT IN WILHELMSTRASSE. GLOOMY FOREBODINGS IN SWEDEN. | By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day. 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, May 2. Reactions to Mr Chamberlain’s statement range from ecstatic delight in the 'vVilmhelmstrasse to gloomy forebodings in Sweden, where perhaps the most emphatic impression is observed. “The Times” Stockholm correspondent describes the statement as a thunderbolt to the Swedish public and adds that Swedish political circles consider that British prestige in nor-! them countries could hardly have received a more damaging blow than I that resulting from Mr Chamberlain's} description of how the Allies conceived and carried out assistance to Norway. Political sceptics consider that the decision to withdraw from the region southward of Trondheim, virtually before the operations had started, proves the Allied attitude to be halfhearted and also does not leave the remaining Norwegian troops in Southern Norway any choice but to surrender.

The Swedish view about Sweden's own position is that Russia's apparent: concern for maintaining a Baltic balance continues to be the essential factor favouring Sweden's chances of remaining outside the war.