SWEDES PROTEST

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 81, 6 April 1943, Page 3

SWEDES PROTEST

HUN TROOP TRAFFIC Government Anxious To Avoid Friction With Reich N.Z. Press Association. —Copyright Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, April 5. Eighteen hundred Swedes who disapprove of the transit of German troops through Sweden to Norway, attended a pro-Norwegian demonstration to-night, says the Daily Express Stockholm correspondent. Speakers included the Dean of Stockholm Cathedral, trade union leaders and editors of liberal and social democratic newspapers. The rally was followed by several hundreds of meetings throughout the country, at which resolutions were passed demanding the cessation of the traffic "in view of. the sufferings of the Norwegian people." The Government considers changes in the war situation have not diminished the dangers to Sweden or made relations with Germany worse, and the stoppage of transit of the traffic would.be a sign of dishonourable instability in Swedish policy. Opposition leaders a.re pressing the Government either to end the traffic now or make a statement tb.'the effect, .that it will end if fighting in-Norway is resumed. The London Times, in a leading article, says: "The Swedish Government's contention since the summer of 1940 has been that Norway is no longer an active front. This is the merest fiction, and has never been accepted by the British Government as valid. . "Sweden .may. -be said. .to be in Germany's economic grip, but Sweden has responsibilities in the war which cannot be burked on the plea of too close proximity to Germany. She has responsibilities to Norway, which was so treacherously overrun. Sweden also has responsibilities in the larger battle for . freedom and for democratic ■ways; of life" '