Norway To Fist Case Before League?

Northern Advocate, 21 February 1940, Page 5

Norway To Fist Case Before League?

LONDON, February 20. The Norwegian Minister to Berlin, M. Arne Scheel, handed the German Foreign Office an aide-memoire, stating that Norway intends to submit the Altmarck incident to the League of Nations, says the Berlin correspondent of the ‘'Daily Mail.” A message from Washington says a suggestion by a Norwegian newspaper that President Roosevelt might preside over international arbitration on the incident is treated cautiously. The Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) refused to comment. A full statement about the incident * ' will be made by Mr Chamberlain in the House of Commons this afternoon. So far, there is nothing to indicate whether Mr Chamberlain will deal with Norway’s case, as stated by Professor Koht. The German official view, says another message from Berlin, is that now that Britain has transferred the war to a neutral soil, a completely new military situation has arisen, of which Germany will take the fullest advantage. The Altmarck affair continues to dominate the Norwegian Press, as well as the newspapers in other neutral countries. Opinion Elsewhere Holland shows little sympathy for Norway, but condemns the British action as a breach of neutral rights. In Paris, the Bourse responded vigorously to the news of the British naval enterprise in boarding the Altmarck, and there were frequent cries of ‘Vive Churchill!” • The incident has delighted the peoples of Danubia and the Balkans, and Britons were stopped and congratulated in the streets of Belgrade. British Press Well Pleased The entire British Press displays with great prominence the news of the rescue of the 300 British merchant seamen from the German auxiliary vessel Altmarck, and comments enthusiastically on the Navy’s action. . The “Manchester Guardian” states: ■ “The skill and speed and conclusive- / ness of the deed, and the circumstances r of the unhappy seamen—one moment crowded like slaves in a prison ship, Humiliated and ill-fed, and told they were to be marched through Berlin in a triumphant procession, and next sailing home safe in a British warship—have moved the people even more than the Graf Spee victory." In referring to the legal aspect of the Altmarck case, “The Times” says: ‘lnternational law does not permit a belligerent to transport his prisoners of war through the territory of a neutral. He cannot march them across neutral land, nor can he convey them into, or through, neutral territorial waters.” Six Germans Buried Many persons, including officers and men of the Altmarck, German officials and German and foreign journalists, attended the burial at Hahge of the six men killed in the fight with the sailors from H.M.S. Cossack. Hitler and Ribbentrop sent wreaths. Norwegian marines formed a guard of honour. A seventh German has died in hospital.