KING HAAKON AND MR. CHURCHILL
the case of Professor D. W. Brogan, inclination to treat him as under-informed as are many writers on international affairs would be impertinence. Hence my regret that he should be led astray over the Churchill visit to Norway. The facts are that the former Premier was invited by the King, at seventy-four astonishingly alert and astute. Churchill had just made his—tragic or prophetic, as you wish—speech at Fulton. Immediately controversy filled the Press of Oslo, where there is no censorship. Neighbours of Russia, the Norwegians insist always on the fact that Russia carried out loyally and promptly her undertakings in respect of Norwegian territory occupied during the last phases of the war with Hitler. And, when the polemics became warm, His Majesty decided to act promptly, before waiting for any possible pressure by the Norwegian Government, over whose meetings he presides with brilliance and tact.
King Haaknn requested Mr. Churchill to solve the difficulty. Circum- stances had arisen, he wrote, which would make it difficult for him to say at the banquet that he was speaking on behalf of all Norwegians. Churchill understood, and, I think, though I have not his authority for saying this, accepted the letter in the spirit in which it had been written. The King, I submit, acted with the highest constitutional authority. Mr. Churchill acted charmingly. But the Norwegian Government must not be blamed ; no, not even by Professor Brogan.—Yours sincerely,
Royal Empire Society, W.C. 2. GEORGE BILA[NKIN.
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