SWEDEN IN PERIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 September 1942, Page 4

SWEDEN IN PERIL

POSSIBLE NAZI DEMANDS IN EVENT OF ALLIED ACTION IN NORWAY. DETERMINATION TO DEFEND NEUTRALITY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.30 a.m.) NEW YORK. September 22. Leading papers discuss the growing peril to Sweden’s neutrality. The “Herald-Tribune’s” military correspondent, Major Eliot, predicts that Sweden will fight if the Nazis demand concessions. He amplifies the explosive possibilities of this area which include the possibility of an Allied landing in Norway, with a view to opening the sea route to Russia, and adds that the Germans could not send supplies and reinforcements to endangered Norwegian positions, unless by way of the Swedish railways Furthermore, he adds, the Nazis might demand the use of Swedish communications to launch an attack on North Russia, but the best-informed quarters hold the opinion that Sweden is determined to fight the Nazis rather than permit their passage through the country. The “New York Times” Stockholm correspondent comments on yesterday’s nation-wide municipal elections, in which the Social Democrats lost many seats to farmers and Communists. He explains that this outcome reflects dissatisfaction with the Government’s concessions to Germany and also with the Government’s slackness in combating the Nazi fifth column. The Government, aware of dangerous possibilities, is carrying out extensive defence preparations. It has also called up for October an additional 55,000 men, boosting the present Army numbering 600,000. The correspondent concludes that the situation narrows down to one thing—the possibility that the Allies might open a second frontin Norway.