EXIT NORWAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 137, 11 June 1940, Page 6

EXIT NORWAY

The decision of the Allies to withdraw from Norway need cause no surprise and no dismay. The expedition which went to the aid of Norway served its purpose in delaying occupation, holding down considerable enemy forces arid causing a wastage of men and material that the Germans with vaster plans in view could ill spare. The capture of Narvik, after the Germans had gone far to destroy the port and the railway leading to it from the Swedish iron mines at Kiruna, gave the Allies a foothold in the north that, under normal circumstances, might have been retained for a more favourable opportunity to attempt the reconquest of Norway with the help of the Norwegian army of the north. But events elsewhere have emphasised the need for men and the dropping of side shows. Moreover, the output of Swedish iron ore has another outlet now in the Baltic port of Lulea, free from ice in the summer. Nothing was to be gained then at this stage by an Allied retention of Narvik. The naval situation there was always an anxiety to the Admiralty, and their fears have been justified by the loss of an aircraft carrier, the Glorious, and several other ships, by enemy action, in these dangerous narrow waters, announced today. There is nothing serious in this news. It means that Norway passes out of the picture in the glare of events nearer home.,