GERMAN HEEL ON NORWAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13432, 10 March 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

GERMAN HEEL ON NORWAY.

RVTHLESS SFRMABINE WABFARE AGAINST XEITIUI.S. ANOTHER TI'RN OF THE SCREW. (By Herbert Bailey.! That process of intimidation so char, ncteristic of German diplomacy is once mm, being invoked in an endeavor to compel Norway to submit to tbe dictates of i be Wiihelms! riisse.

Two weeks ngo Norway, following the lead of Sweden and recognising ihe force of the contentions in the Mrilidi submarine Note, gave notiee that on and alter October '_'■! foreign suhmarii.es would hi prohibited from navigating in Norwegian territorial water- under penalty of interniiu :n without notice, and intimated that entrance into such water.-, will only b permitted if stress of weather or easua It "us make it necessary 10 approach ihe coast for the purpose of saving human life. !n taking up this attitnde Norway was only complying with the dictates of national prudeuee. The order applied to all nations, and. therfore, involved no (jmsiion oi Norwegian neutrality. lint Germany thought otherwise, and the semi-official I'ress immediately brought liie "inai','l.l fisi" into view, tbe Cologne Oiixotte warning Norway that ii -he int rued ;i Gi ruian submarine under the conditions of li e royal decree ■"even England could not proteci her against a severe and effective answer from the German side." A week later Germany replied to the Norwegian decree. The text of the reply ha> not been published, but Heir Zimmermaun lias informed the Aftenposten ol Christiania that Germany prepared a vigorous protect, and has 'talc! that Norway's attitude is "exidcnll.v inspired by unfriendly sentiments towardsGermany."

.M. iinwhilc die torpedoes of Gorman submarines and the threats of the (Jerman Press are s<n king to bring Norway round to the Got man way of thinking. Telegrams arrive daily telling the same story of Norwegian vessels torpaloed and their crews ielt in open boats to the mercies of the North Sea. At the .same time Norway is told that she must abandon her attitude, revoke the royal decree, and allow German submarines to carry on unmolested their depredations on Norwegian shipping. The attitude of Germany, howev?r, suggests curious reflections. When Sweden determined on the course thai Norway has since adopted, no German protest threatened Sweden. The reason is obvious. Only British and Russian submarines operating in tile Baltic were i likely to seek the temporary asylum of Swedish territorial waters.' On the other hand, only German submarines engaged in the destruction of one of the chief sources nf Norwegian wealth are likely to enter Norwegian territorial waters. Rut the motives which actuate this differentiation between Sweden and N'o'-way are many and varied. It is n peculiarity of the German mind that when i: cannot convince it intimidates. a M having failed, despite an insistent and exp nsive propaganda, to convince either the Norwegian Government or the Norwegian prop!; that she is induing successfully in a worthy cause, Germany sinks Norwegian shipping and re presents the British Minister at Chris I t'ania as- the real nil r of Norway. That the attitude of the Norwegian Government has been strictly neutral everv impartial observer of Ruropoan politics will testify; but the Norwegian people have certainly not succeeded in j

principles'M'of 'Which LJritaih 'is" lighting admitted of no compromise fri the minds of neutrals, and that Norway was whole-heartedly with the Alii.-a.

The attitude ol the Norwegian people is distinctly intelligible. Whili Sweden has e\ it tl'.riu- 1 li r eyes to the south. Norway has always l< okod , m aero- -

iln- North Sea to Uriiaiu in iho iu si. Kngjish i- more lro(|iit'iitly spoken in Norway than Cierman. The bookshop are tilled with F.nglish publication-. and ii has hron my experience t.i hear a Norwegian univprsity sttidcitt sing tin* wi-i's and chorus of "Tipperary" in la.ill F.nglish and Norwegian. Historically, too, there is a saen .1 bond between Norway and Britain. Norwegians are more Celtic than Teutonic, and the ini rcourse between Scotland, Irolfliid, and Norway has always been marked by its frequency. Her ivjigioii, her Church, the manners of the. people, her architecture, and her intellectual tastes haw all been mainly derived by Norway Iron! Britain.

It was the Hanseatie League thai destroyed the ancient civilisation of Norway; it wtis Germanism that broughtNorway to economic ruin. It was British inflin nee and British sympathy that restored, as fa.r as it could be restored, the economic wealth ol the country and her poTitioal fieedom. In l!"io. when Norway sought to break her union with Sweden, a mi: in forged by Mctteruich. it was British sympathy with Norwegian n.-piratious that made it possible. The ues of Iriendship between the -.wo puiple- are thus of the most pure and iui imate kind.

The war has revealed wliai Cermanism in its new lorm. hill as sinisti r as in the remote past, real y means to Norway and her people. Since tb■> war began up to the end ..i last month Norway had losi 113 steamers of an aggregate capaein i.j 17H.11 M tons and a total value oi C-l.oil;),li:i). and forty-eight sailing \a sseis of 1i.00'.l tons of a total i aluc of C'J'lll.tl : i. mainly l;y German submarines and German mines. This represent' !s.M per cent, oj Norway's mercantile lomhigc. The lossch during the present inonth. however, have been elK.rinoi's. I'ji ;., .-, ;V\\ .! \V jiiro twenty -1: ainei - of a l< in.ago oi 3,".";'!, und i igiilei en aiding vo> ..els had been sunk by Gi-rinaii suhinai in s. II e\ .•;■ a nation had grounds I ijlighting. Nei'.vay surely pos-i-sis tlitni. ii v,as pci-h.-ijis not u iihoiii reason that the < ; nmia Minister m ('hristiania oiue deelaivd that "Germany coulii allord ii ignore nnural opinion." S)nInn -.•.riainly done little, since the lboat._ camiiaign began, to win ihe favor oi Xoruejiiaiis.