ON THE DANISH MODEL.

Evening Star, Issue 23723, 2 November 1940, Page 10

ON THE DANISH MODEL.

In a naive statement from Berlin it is suggested that Greece made a mistake in regarding the Italian ultimatum as a declaration of war, since it might have formed the basis of a reasonable settlement on the Danish model. The unconscious humour of this comment can be realised by an examination of conditions in Denmark at the moment, as related by a Copenhagen correspondent of the London ‘ Times.’ It is declared that nothing was left undone to win over the Danes, the Nazi orders being to treat the people decently. That was the velvet glove. The hand of steel beneath quickly revealed itself. Much trouble was taken to conceal the wholesale plunder of the country behind elaborate trade agreements. If the Danes were ever under any misapprehension as to whether the Germans would pay for what they took away they were bluntly disillusioned by their own Minister of Commerce, who in August declared that the German debt to Denmark on the trade account had risen to 800,000,000 kroner in four months, and ho hardly concealed his doubt that the debt would ever be paid. Denmark in the last hundred years had brought its dairy produce industry to a state of high efficiency. Now it will be ruined as a result of the British blockade and of German exploitation. No fodder can be imported, so the Government has ordered a tremendous reduction of livestock, most of which will fall into Nazi hands. The farmers find it revolting to submit to the swift destruction of an agricultural system which they and their fathers, at infinite cost and trouble, had built up. They are required to support the creation of a new agricultural order in Denmark as a sufficient corn-growing State, fed on artificial fertilisers from the subjugated neighbour Norway, with cattle and pigs reduced to a minimum. This is a reversion to early nineteenth century agriculture, which had been discarded

gradually for the more profitable dairying industry. In this picture of hopeless economic disaster, underlined by steadily growing unemployment, the correspondent referred to detected a ray of hope in the outspoken revival of national feeling in Denmark. The complacent belief that “ peaceful little Denmark ” would never be drawn into the European whirlpool tended to make the Danes neglect their national duties. Under the invasion they have come to realise that only a united nation, faithful to national tradition, will survive. It is declared that most Danes are resisting the Nazis quietly, but in a spirit of unbreakable resolution. Open revolt is out of the question, but non-co-operation is having a hampering effect on the plans of the invaders. Presently, it is hoped, as Germany’s embarrassments become greater, they will be able to manifest their resistance in a more tangible form.