Merry Dr. Schmidt

Dr. Paul Schmidt of the German Foreign Office was most cordial to the Stockholm newspapermen. He had enjoyed his usual hearty lunch and washed it down with perhaps a little too much good Swedish beer. He beckoned the newsmen close. Because of the "advanced stage" of Swedish-German relations and the "various rumors" that Germany was going to invade Sweden, Herr Schmidt was going to release a secret.

"I now have been informed, strictly confidentially," he said, "that Sweden is occupied by German troops since yesterday." Newsmen gulped, departed, began telephoning frantically for details. When they were gone, Herr Schmidt roared with laughter. It had all been a joke, an assurance, of course, that the invasion talk was ludicrous. It was all very funny.

But not to the Swedes. They knew Herr Schmidt's humor was not all in fun. It was the start of the same old guessing game which began each year with the melting snows. Everyone would guess which way Adolf Hitler would jump next--then wonder how they could have missed the obvious. In 1940 the experts had Hitler invading France--but he struck at Norway first. In 1941 he was going against the British or Turkey--but he turned against Russia instead. Now, in 1942, it seemed that Hitler would strike toward the Russian Caucasus or the Suez Canal. Naturally, the Swedes began to worry.

Neutral Sweden has supplied Germany with iron ore, wood pulp and merchant ships. The Government has leaned over backward to maintain friendly relations with Germany: last week it suppressed ten newspapers which had printed documented accounts of German concentration-camp brutalities in Norway. An Army of 30 highly trained divisions, under General Ivar Holmquist, is tough and ready after winter exercises. The trim little Swedish Navy under Vice Admiral Fabian Tamm was on the alert. But the suspense was painful.

Sweden was virtually encircled. The problem, more ominous than ever before, was to figure out this year's answer to the Hitler guessing game. There were at least three possibilities: 1) the Germans were trying to distract the Allies from other objectives; 2) they were warring against Swedish nerves to force permission for cross-Sweden movements of troops; 3) they meant to forestall a United Nations invasion of Norway.

The Swedes wished they knew the correct answer. Remembering that between offensive and defensive moves, psychopathic Hitler usually chooses what he believes is the defensive (see p. 28), they took little comfort from reports that aged King Gustav V had followed broadcasts of tennis matches between Sweden and Croatia with "great excitement."

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