PERIL GROWS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 225, 24 September 1942, Page 5

PERIL GROWS

SWEDEN’S NEUTRALITY WILL FIGHT IF NAZIS WANT CONCESSIONS NORWAY AS ‘-SECOND FRONT” (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) New York, Sept. 22. Leading papers discuss the growing peril of Sweden’s neutrality. The New York Herald-Tribune’s military correspondent, Major Eliot, predicts that Sweden will fight if the Nazis demand concessions. He amplifies the explosive possibilities in this area, which include the possibility of an Allied landing in Norway, with a view to opening a sea route to Russia, and adds that the Germans could not send supplies and reinforcements to endangered Norwegian positions unless via the Swedish railways. Furthermore, the Nazis mi,ght demand the use of Swedish communications to launch an attack in north Russia, but best. informed quarters hold the opinion that Sweden is determined that she would ®9o®aoe©oe©saoo®oo®®oo®©®®

rather fight the Nazis than permit their passage through the country. The Stockholm correspondent of the New York Times comments on yesterday's nation-wide municipal elections, in which the Social Democrats lost many seats to farmers and Communists. He explains that the outcome reflects dissatisfaction with the Government’s concessions to Germany. also with the Government’s slackness in combating the Nazi fifth column. The Government, he says, is aware of dangerous possibilities and is carrying out extensive defence preparations and has also called up for October an additional 55,000 men, boosting the present army numbering 600,000. The. correspondent concludes that the situation narrows down to one thing—the possibility that the Allies mighi open a second front in Norway.