AN ADMIRAL’S APPEAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 May 1940, Page 5

AN ADMIRAL’S APPEAL

Admiral Sir Royer Keyes said he had visited the Admiralty and suggested action againist Trondheim based on his own experiences. He had asked them to allow him to take all the responsibility of organising and leading a naval attack on Trondheim. A vigorous criticism of the Government came from L. Amery (Conservative) who compared Cabinet with a man in Africa who was eaten by a lion the night before he meant to shoot it. THE SECRETARY FOR WAR Mr Oliver Stanley, Secretary for War, said that whatever importance might be attached to the Norwegian campaign, it had to be remembered that there was war elsewhere. Although things were still quiet on the Western Front, at any moment it might be the scene of the greatest storm the world had ever seen. No one expected that German propaganda would have made part of the Norwegian people give in without any resistance at all. Fighting in Norway was still going on and they had made Germany pay a price. An occupation which she had expected to take a day or two had taken weeks. Had it not been for air attack, our forces might have maintained themselves for any length of time. Mr A. Greenwood. Deputy Leader of the Labour Barty, said it was a shocking story of ineptitude and showed that the campaign had never been thought out. He feared its effect on neutrals but from the military point of view, it might be Hitler’s downfall.