Nazi Laments Have Grim Humour To Americans

Northern Advocate, 20 February 1940, Page 5

Nazi Laments Have Grim Humour To Americans

NEW YORK. February 19. While the State Department re- j lures to comment on the boarding of the Altmarck. as American inferests arc not involved, all unofficial Washington opinion agrees that Britain has tenable grounds under internatio ral law to support her action. Leading jurists declare Norway was at fault in not determining the true status of the Abmarck and freeing the prisoners. They quoted the case of the Apparn I in 1916. when the United States was forced into setting free 429 British prisoners who were taken into Newport on board the liner, which had been captured by a German raider. Mr. James W. Gerard, who was ambassador to Germany from 1913 to ’.917, said: “Just suppose the Altmnrc* bad put into New York Harbour. Would we have stood for it?” The “New York Herald-Tribune” says: “There is a grim humour in Berlin’s wild cries of anger, pain and outraged moral virtue. The nation whose governors have made brute force their diety has had relatively mildly, the tables turned.. A Nervy Neutral. “Norway, of course, is protesting With one eye on Germany, but no one outside Germany is really profoundly shocked. Many Americans are not repressing sardonic smiles at the German outcries.” The “New York Times” says: .“Few /incidents of the war have surpassed in sheer dramatic interest, the Cossack’s rescue of the British seamen. “The Norwegians’ failure to discover the prisoners is incredible, but it is • conceivable that the unhappy Norwegian Government was acting under German pressure. “This is- the only explanation, too, for Sweden’s refusal to allow the passage of foreign troops to Finland.”