NORWAY DEAD LOSS TO NAZIS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 26 June 1940, Page 7

NORWAY DEAD LOSS TO NAZIS

! OPINION OF NORWEGIAN WRITER ECONOMIC LIFE DESTROYED RESTRICTIONS INCREASED [By Air Mail—Special Correspondent] LONDON, Bth June. I Life in Norway under the Nazis is i described this week by a Norwegian, , Bjarnc Braatoy, now in England, who j declares in a London newspaper that ! his country has been a great disappointj ment to the invaders. They had ex- ! pected to be received with open arms. Their commanders had not counted on any losses. Instead they were met with resistance. They lost some of their most valuable ships.

The German naval attache at Oslo was heard to reproach a Norwegian bitterly with the sinking of the cruiser Blucher at the entrance to Oslo harbour. He had good reason to, for among the 1,500 men lost on board were the advance Gestapo. For several days after the occupation of Oslo, the Norwegians were able to organise without fear of Nazi police control. The Nazis also lost men and they lost in morale. Innumerable young soldiers believed that they would be welcomed as protectors by people who h_d shown them hospitality when they were child refugees during the last war. Some of them went visiting their foster parents. Their dismay at being thrown out was such that soldiers were seen to collapse in tears outside houses which had once been their homes.

The Germans began looting—but only wholesale. They left the retail shops alone. Stores accumulated by the Norwegian authorities were sent to Germany. But the individual Norwegian was spared, except in such matters as stricter rationing and the control of private bank balances. As time went on and it became clear that Norway must be considered an enemy country, more severe measures were introduced. The Norwegians were no longer allowed to move about freely in the occupied territories. They were threatened with reprisals.

Looting became more systematic and more detailed. Above all, the economic life of the country was destroyed. Towns and farms have been bombed to bits or wiped out by fire.

Unemployment is tremendous. Inland and coastal communications have not got going. So far, Norway is a dead loss to the Nazis. They have to go on fighting for the country. The occupation, in fact, Is costing them as much trouble and expense as the original invasion. The Norwegians still have their own Government in existence within their own frontiers, even if it has had to retreat to the far north.

The Norwegian broadcasts from London communicate the instructions and information to the Norwegian authorities from the non-occupied areas to .he occupied parts, where everybody listens. The Nazis have, so far, been unable to prevent that.

The Norwegians continue to present a firm front, at least in the spirit. The first favourable circumstance will show .hat the front can be re-established in action.