The official communiqué issued at Vichy, warning French- men who
try to leave France to join General de Gaulle of the fate they may meet with is singularly instructive. " Every day," it states, " boats try to leave for English ports from the coasts of Normandy and Brittany." Exactly the same thing is true of Norway. There the voyage is more perilous, for it means risking the crossing of the North Sea, not merely of the English Channel. But fishing-boats are making the voyage every week, almost every day, and as a result the number of Norwegians in arms in this country is slowly but steadily growing. The spirit of young Norwegians was shown in the recent raid on the Lofoten Islands. There was no fore- knowledge of the raid and no pre-arrangement. The Nor- wegians had the chance of escaping to England, but it came suddenly out of a blue sky and they had to make their decision on the spot. Some hundreds of them—a substantial number out of so small a local population—made it, and boarded the British ships at an hour's notice in whatever clothes they happened to be wearing, and bringing no other belongings with them. After all it was very like an escape from prison. * * * *
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