Treason And Bribery

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 90, 16 April 1940, Page 7

Treason And Bribery

NORWAY AGENTS Spiked Navy Guns And Reduced Forts BUT PLOT FAILED _________ < (United Press Association.—Copyright.— Rec. noon.) NEW YORK, April 15. F° r the first time the story behind Germany's paralysing 1 2-hour conquest of Norway last Tuesday can now be told, writes Leland Stowe, correspondent of the "Chicago Daily News" in Stockholm, in a copyright dispatch. "Hie Norwegians still have not the slightest conception of how the tragedy happened. Oslo and the seaports were not captured by armed force, y w ere seized by a gigantic conspiracy ranking among the most audacious and best-oiled political plots in the last century. By bribery, the infiltration of Nazi agents, and the treason l n ? %\ and civilian officials, the Germans built a Trojan Horse. They spiked the Navy's guns and reduced the fortresses to impotence. On the most reliable authority it is stated that the German troopships sailed on the night of Thursday, April 4, three days before the British mined the Norwegian coast, and also that erman generals strongly opposed the invasion, on the grounds that communications would be dangerously exposed. Continuing, Leland Stowe says that on the night of April 5 the German Legation in Oslo invited 200 influential persons to see a him of the destruction of Poland, after which the Minister explained that it was a peace, not a war film, since it showed that nations electing peace saved the people suffering. This was three hours and a half before the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Professor Koht, received the ultimatum. On Tuesday the commander of three Norwegian warships at Horten was ordered, ostensibly by the Foreign Office, to land his crews unarmed and not oppose the Germans. Meanwhile the mines m Oslo Fiord and narrows were disconnected, enabling Cierman penetration. K m CTU ' lSe l' i >el i eved to L h , a f ve H en the Emden - and «ubSS th a e C ufl"um en Pr ° f ~ 3 ° r The Norwegians were helpless, but the minelayer Olaf Trygvason, returning unexpectedly for repairs, had not received .K« faked order,- k » locked the and to^.do«d cruiser and one submarine.