GERMAN THEN, AND NOW

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21303, 23 December 1940, Page 4

GERMAN THEN, AND NOW

VOICE OF 700 YEARS AGO NORWEGIAN KING’S WORDS A voice from the 12th century gives a clear statement of what European peoples are fighting for and what they are fighting against. In the year 1168, King bverre, as recalled in Sverre’s Saga, spoke to his Norwegians in terms which showed that even then there was a challenge against a free country’s right to trade as it wished and to live its own life:— “We wish (said the King) to thank all Englishmen who have come here with w'heat and honey, flour and home-spun. We thank those who have brought flax, wa?i and kettles. We mention with friendship those who come from Orkney and Shetland, from the Faroes or Iceland, and all those who have brought’ to this country the things we cannot dfo without. German Depredations “But the German men who came here in big numbers in big ships take away our butter and our dried fish; and because of these outgoings there arises great destruction for our country. In return they bring wine which has caused many of our : people to lose their lives, or their ; iimbs, or to suffer shame or be ■ wounded or beaten. I can Only be | ungrateful to the Germans for their conduct; and, if they wish to keep their lives or their goods, they must leave at once. Their errand has been of little use to us or to our land.” In 194 t? the Germans did not take wine to Norway; they took bombs. Otherwise King Sverre might have oeen speaking of the present day.