SWEDEN IN PERIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 March 1942, Page 3

SWEDEN IN PERIL

COMPLETE MOBILISATION ORDERED FEARS OF GERMAN INVASION RAPID DETERIORATION OF RELATIONS. VIOLENT ABUSE & THREATS IN NAZI PRESS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright)' LONDON, March 23. Sweden, fearing invasion in the spring, has ordered the complete mobilisation of her army. Revealing this, the “Daily Express” adds that relations between Sweden and Germany have rapidly deteriorated lately, as shown by the violent abuse and threats from German newspapers and the collapse of trade talks. Mobilisation actually started three weeks ago and has been screened behind big manoeuvres in northern Sweden, but the reserves who participated are not being released and more are being quietly called up daily. The final stage of mobilisation, which will mean the stripping of thousands of men from industry, is expected to be finished on April 9, the anniversary of the invasion of Norway two years ago. Sweden’s fleet is fully manned, arms industries are working overtime, antiaircraft batteries are now manned 24 hours a day, A.R.P. work is compulsory, Home Guards are stationed at frontier and coastal regions, and shelters have been built for Stockholm’s 500,000 people. Most stringent precautions have been taken against spies and Fifth Columnists after the arrest of two Swedish Nazis who were trying to transmit plans of the chief naval base to Germany. Besides the German Press and radio campaign, Sweden has three main reasons to anticipate attack: First, Hitler’s possession of her* fleet would transform the naval balance in the eastern Baltic and alternatively the fleet could be used for an assault against Britain. Secondly, it is recalled that the Germans bullied Sweden into allowing a division to cross her territory into Finland. Sweden has resisted all thq repeated demands for the passage of more troops. Thirdly, to counter a BritishAmerican invasion of northern Norway for the purpose of safeguarding the Murmansk and Archangel arms route to Russia it would be imperative for the Germans to use the Swedish railway to Narvik.