SWEDEN: Shadow over Sweden

Correspondents in Stockholm last week were told—and believed—that German troops were about to evacuate Finland and northern Norway. The prospect confronted Swedes with delicate problems.

Sweden might be asked to neutralize the Narvik area to hold back the Allies in return for a German promise to leave the earth unscorched. That could be done only with the approval of the British and of exiled Norwegian King Haakon.

Finland was another matter. If the Germans go home through Sweden, the laws of neutrality demand that the Swedes intern them. The Swedes would also have to feed them. There are an estimated 100,000 Germans in Finland (and northern Norway), and Sweden has no food to spare.