QUISLING No. 1

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 287, 4 December 1941, Page 12

QUISLING No. 1

HIS HAUNTED LIFE NORWAY'S STAUNCH SPIRIT At least one family in Norway will sleep better now that Major Quisling, pattern and prototype of all quislings, has been quietened by an overdose of his favourite opiate. It is the family that lives in the flat below Quisling's flat in Norway. Day after day, month after month, they have been disturbed by his pacing up and down the thin floorboards above from 8 p.m. onwards while he waited for the last Norwegian news bulletin from London. Quisling hated those voices from London, the voices of Norwegians who were once his friends, hammering home the truth. But he could not refrain from listening. Constantly he sought relief in drugs; I cannot believe they were of use, for he confessed that the voices went on in his infected mind. I met Quisling a few weeks ago in Norway. I looked into his eyes and already—believe me, I am not a fanciful man—l looked into the eyes of a maniac and the eyes of a hunted animal. A Pitiful Pretence At the tables round-about in that Oslo restaurant'where he and I Avere lunching plain-clothes policemen sat. They did not bring him peace of mind.

Eight more policemen were on constant guard at Quisling's flat, where he lived with his unfortunate Russian-born wife. They stood in the doorways. They cluttered up the stairs.

It is a year since Reichskommissar Terboven set up Major Quisling's puppet Government in Norway. From the first day it was a pitiful pretence, and at the time that I left 99 per cent of the Norwegian people were welded together more solidly and more actively against Hitler than ever before.

To-day the quislings are ignored by the Norwegians so completely that they might as well not exist; while by the Germans they are just kept dangling in case they may be useful some time as scapegoats. Most of these unhappy traitors would be only too happy if they could retire into obscurity away from this double nerve-war between the Norwegians and the Germans. But they have no choice. The German occupation troops are also labouring under intense nervous strain. A Norwegian friend who chanced to be present at the Savoy Hotel in Oslo shortly after the Hess incident gate-crashed an impromptu party of German officers in the lounge. Just as the party was at its noisiest a German captain sprang up and lifted his glass. "The toast is Hess!" he cried. - In the dead silence that followed the captain shouted: "You all agree with me, only you dare not say so. Even if I lose my head for it I will repeat, 'Hess was right. Long live Hess!'" Next day the captain was spurlos verschwunden ("lost without trace"). The British "Angels" On the invasion of Russia many of the occupation troops in Norway were transferred to the northern frontier from the west coast, and the remainder anxiously awaited invasion from Iceland and Scotland. Last year we Norwegians taunted the Germans with the question: "When are you going to England?" Now it was the Nazis who tried to find out from us when the British meant to invade Norway. Feverish efforts were made "to strengthen the coastal defences. Most welcome sight for sore Norwegian eyes is always that of British bombers, which are popularly referred to as "angels." Norwegians seriously complain that Norway >is not bombed half enough. There is bitter discontent and jealousy in the more remote parts of the country, which are seldom visited by '-'angels." The prestige of King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav in Norway is extraordinary. The whole people followed with keenest anxiety the German pursuit of the King during the Norwegian campaign; they were thrilled by the stand that he made against the oppressor; to-day they love him almost as a god. In their minds the King in distant London is a symbol of the Norway that will rise again.

"Civil Courage" In the high schools and the universities the spirit is the same. Again and again the Germans have threatened to close down the University of Oslo, but the unshakable attitude of both professors and students has made it inexpedient for them to carry out the threat. English is forbidden. Very well, the Norwegians will learn English. All over the country secret study groups for the teaching of English have arisen. English news must not be spread. The Germans have zoned up the country to make it difficult for Norwegians to make contact. Very well, the Norwegians see to it that contact is not only maintained, but improved. For instance: The day of the famous British raid on the Lofoten Islands a full and detailed report reached my friends in the southernmost part of Norway— nearly 1000 miles away—before 11 a.m. j The Germans themselves in that town did not know about the raid until late in the afternoon. It would be dangerous to my friends still in Norway to say how the news is sent, but it is well known that many of the newspapers stopped by the Germans, including my own newspaper, Tidens Tegn, are still distributed illegally all over the country. The Norwegians have shown themselves to possess a virtue which Bismarck in his time admitted that the Germans completely lacked, namely, "civil courage." -This courage neither prison, nor terror, nor flattery can break. Allied to * the hate "which is coursing like fire through Norway's veins to-day, this civil courage is a ferment for victorious revolt when the hour is struck by England.—J. Schauche Jonasen, editor in chief of Oslo's newspaper, in the Daily Express. He recently escaped to England after being twice imprisoned by the Germans.