HARD TO CONVERT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 10, 13 January 1941, Page 8

HARD TO CONVERT

PEOPLE OF NORWAY

CONDITIONS IN EUROPE

APATHFiTIC GERMANS

LjONDON, January 11. The German invaders of Norway and Belgium are meeting with growing resistance in their attempt to convert thet&e peoples to the blessings of the new' order.

From 'aj reliable Swedish source comes news that western Norway flatly refuses to accept directions from Quisling and his regime, and Quisling's newspaper has had to admit thc'U: the position there is more than searious; in fact, probably hopelessl Newspapers in that part of Norway are reported as steadfastly refusing to publish anything supplied by the Propaganda Minister.

The Germans in Norway are finding great difficulty in enforcing the ban on the use of i King Haakon's name and picture on merchandise. For example, a popular brand of sardines is callfjd "King of Norway," and on every tin there is the King's picture.

A^' practical solution would be to duwip the whole lot into the sea, but, as one Swedish newspaper points out, even Quislingites must eat. So a strip of paper is pasted over the KSng's picture and the sardines rendfered innocuous from the propaganda 73oint of view. Workers in the sardine 'cannery meet the challenge to their loyalty by fixing the strip of paper in such a way that it is easy to lift and reveal the King's picture. BELGIAN FOOD SHORTAGE. In Belgium, food troubles are increasing. Under the pretext of ensuring that no one has more than his rightful share the Germans have appointed 3500 officials whose object is to prosecute wherever they can so that the Courts may order the confiscation of stocks of food which .people may have accumulated through difficult times. The number of food prosecutions in Belgium was 70,000 in November, alone, involving the seizure of 250 tons of commodities. After six years in Berlin as correspondent of an important Chicago newspaper an American has returned to the United States to describe the present state of the German people as he saw it. He said the German people are tired as few people in the world have ever been without breaking down. An important contributing factor, he points out, is the prospect of a second blockade. DISCONSOLATE SOLDIERS. "The longer the war lasts the more the Germans will -wonder if it is worth fighting," he said. He described the endless columns of disconsolate German soldiers pouring through Berlin and other German cities on their way to the front and to occupied countries, and he also described the apathy of the people in the streets. He never heard a cheer, not even after the news that France had asked for terms. Probably this spreading gloom in Germany supplies much of the energy which the Nazi Party is once more putting into their talks on the invasion of Britain. Yesterday, Dr. Goebbels referred to it in his usual sinister style, and this was followed up today by a German commentator speaking in English, who said: "What doesn't happen in a year may happen in a moment."