30 JUNE 1917, Page 2

Great excitement and indignation have been aroused in Norway by

the discovery of a bomb plot evidently aimed at Norwegian shipping. The police at Christiania discovered amongst the luggage of Baron Belden:dela, described as a German Imperial Courier, no fewer than.two hundred and eleven bombs disguised as " briquettes " or pieces of coal, packages of tobacco, pencils, pens, &c., all filled with high explosives. No Norwegians are implicated in the plot, but two Finns were arrested, and, according to the Christiania Press, one of them stated that the bombs were mainly to be placed on American ships leaving Norway. As two Norwegian vessels were blown up by internal explosions, it is probable that similar explosives had already been used in Norwegian vessels. It is further alleged that the trunks brought by Rautenfels had been scaled and stamped by the German Foreign Office, and were thus passed through the Norwegian Customs without being opened. Meanwhile the German Minister has been recalled, in strict award- awe, as M. Branting, the Swedish Socialist, points out, with the precedent established in America some months ago, where dsrna- miters were discovered, and the German official representative had to disappear.