NEUTRALS AND THE NAZIS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 136, 4 March 1940, Page 6

NEUTRALS AND THE NAZIS

After having suffered heavy shipping losses resulting in serious dislocation of their maritime commerce the three Scandinavian States, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, have decided to take action, not collectively, but separately, and on parallel lines. But the action to be taken seems very far short of the requirements of the case—-the belligerents are simply to be asked to stop laying mines. So fat as the report goes it would appear that no distinction has been drawn between British practice in mine-laying, which adheres strictly to the rules of sea warfare, and German practice, which demonstrably does not. . . . The use of minefields is recognized as legitimate, provided their positions are charted, and due notice given to those concerned. Their object is to circumscribe navigable waters adjacent to the coasts of the belligerent countries in order that supervision of shipping traffic, warlike and peaceful, can be made more strict and effective, and to place obstructions in the way of hostile naval operations. It was never contemplated that secret minefields and magnetic mines would be laid down indiscriminately to the danger of belligerent and neutral merchant shipping alike, as the Germans, according to the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Professor Koht, have done. Out of 50 Norwegian ships, totalling 110,000 tons, which have been sunk by the Germans, no fewer than 33, he. said, were mined, nine were torpedoed, and the fate of the remaining eight was doubtful. “All Norwegian ships known to have been deliberately sunk,” he added, “were sunk by the Nazis.” Furthermore, most of the losses had occurred in waters “outside those in which minefields had been announced.” The Scandinavian countries can hardly expect the belligerents to refrain from the legitimate use of minefields, but they can certainly demand, and will have universal support for this action, that the Germans should conform to the rules governing sea mines. Surprise has been expressed that the neutral States should have suffered this piratical vandalism to go on for so long without vigorous protest. But, says Professor Koht, protests have in fact been made, and completely ignored. The neutral Press is now adopting a more outspoken attitude of condemnation. One Swedish journal, for example, points out that the British method ol sea warfare, apart from the humanitarian aspect, is on quite a different level from Germany's. This and similar comment adversely critical of Nazi methods will no doubt be regarded in Germany as an unneutral act. according to a statement broadcast by the Nazi Propaganda Minister, Dr. Goebbels, last week. Germany, declared Dr. Goebbels, does not intend to allow neutrals to express views with which Germany is not in agreement. It was not sufficient, he pointed out, that a Government should declare its neutrality and allow public opinion in the same State to be free to abuse as much as it liked. In other words the Netherlands Government, for example, must not protest, or the Dutch people criticize, if a German U-boat or bomber sends one of their ships with its crew to the bottom without warning or investigation of its cargo or destination. Not a word of criticism must be allowed to appeal in the Press of any neutral country concerning Nazi outrages which have shocked the civilized world. Dr. Goebbels no doubt believes that this kind of domineering bombast will produce the desired effect in the smaller and weaker States. It may he wondered, however, what the reaction oi the Nazi regime will be to the severe criticism in the Italian Press of Germany’s brutalities in Poland. “Reliable news, comments the duet Fascist newspaper Pofiolo d’ltalia, “compels the question: Aie any human feelings left in Germany? The Poles are deprived of every sacred human right, religion is smashed, homes commandeered, property confiscated, churches profaned, and human beings transported like animals. The soil of Poland is red with blood. Ihe point about this, and the increasing indignation and protests in othei neutral countries, is that Germany is being completely outlawed by the public opinion of the world, and this, in its cumulative moral and material effects, may well be comparable to a major disaster to her arms.