No More Sissies

Unlike the logical French, most of whom had the invasion of Scandinavia figured out as a German blunder (see col. 1), the British rocked gently back & forth last week in emotional doldrums. At first they showed mild signs of discouragement that the Nazis seemed to have "stolen a march" on the Allies. Next they brightened up a bit at news that the Royal Navy (actually only its lighter ships) was hurtling full steam into the Skagerrak. They got a kick out of Winston Churchill's account of the first raid off Narvik and the fight of the Renown and Scharnhorst (see p. 19). But in London there was little of the electric tension that made Jutland one of the terrific, unforgettable moments of World War I, although last week brought the greatest naval engagements since Jutland, little compared to the days of Berchtesgaden-Godesberg-Munich, when all Britain went on an emotional jag.

Queen Mary, as if nothing much were happening, went up to London for lunch at Buckingham Palace and to take in the first show to which Her Majesty has gone since the outbreak of war. This was a matinee of Ivor Novello's Ladies Into Action and the Queen Mother sent for Playwright Novello and his old mother, who was sitting in an opposite box, chatted with them about trifles in a homey fashion most reassuring to the watching British audience.

On the Stock Exchange, British speculators "bet on the Navy" (as they expressed it) by offering to buy large blocks of Norwegian bonds, but these were quoted so low that most holders refused to sell--which was another way of also betting on the Navy. At "cinema palaces" in London cheers again grew louder for the old (65) First Sea Lord than for the old (71) Prime Minister last week, British audiences greeted with stony silence newsreel shots of the old (69) U. S. Minister to Norway, Daisy Harriman.

It has become "sissy" in recent weeks to go about in Britain carrying one's gas mask. Last week just about the only concrete, observable effect in the United Kingdom of Adolf Hitler's sudden return to Blitzkrieg was that tens of thousands of the King's subjects again went about with gas masks, no longer the badge of a Worrying Willy.

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