Fight for Nord Slesvig?

Plump and pleasing Herre Lauritz Rasmussen does not look like a defense minister. Still less does he sound like one. Last week the portly chief of Denmark's minute armed forces (a national militia of 14,136 men; 45 coast defense vessels) calmly declared that they must be further reduced--to nil.

Taking as text the sweeping Fascist gains in Germany's recent election (see p. 25), Herre Rasmussen squarely faced the fact that before long--no one knows how long--there may be an aggressive, militant, Fascist government at Berlin.

What would such a government do about Nord Slesvig, which the allies took from Germany and restored to a grateful Denmark?

"A new war certainly is not impossible," said the defense minister gravely. "Fuel is constantly being piled higher for a new bonfire, and there is danger that Denmark will be drawn into the conflict on the basis of her defense system--a system of partial disarmament.

"It is a fact that experts have characterized this arrangement as useless in the event of war. Present conditions do not offer us a shade of security. They are a threat to Denmark's neutrality, which we can preserve only if we get rid of our armed forces entirely."

Instead of resistance a la Belgium, practical Herre Rasmussen proposes in effect to greet the approaching enemy with a correct handshake, a pointed request not to go shooting off cannon and mussing up Denmark. He concluded: "Total disarmament and, in case of aggression, a protest to all the Powers--that is our best, our only adequate defense."

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