240 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



British Consuls, who almost alone understood the 

 basic opinions of the Norwegians as a whole during 

 the war, were that views favourable to the Allies 

 were centred in the intelligent and broad-minded 

 people of Christiania, together with a few isolated 

 individuals in various ports, as well as in the more 

 thinly populated interior, the small Army and 

 Navy, and the personnel of the Norwegian mercan- 

 tile fleet, who had every cause to loathe the German 

 barbarians. On the other hand, the main popu- 

 lation of Norway, settled on an immense coast-line 

 from Arendal in the south to remote Vardo on the 

 Finmark coast of the Polar Sea, were actively 

 or passively pro-German. This feeling was sporadic, 

 and seldom openly expressed as far as Trond- 

 hjem, owing to fear of our counter-measures, but 

 north of this point the people of the coast-line 

 were more and more active in their work and 

 sympathies to help Germany. This the traveller 

 found as he went north and the fishing interests 

 became more important. Moreover, the constant 

 fear that Germany was invincible and would 

 certainly take reprisals in the future if her demands 

 were not met, was another potent factor in all 

 Norwegian acts. The reasons for this are quite 

 easily defined. Germany before the war had 

 " collared " the greater part of the northern fish 

 industry. She bought nearly the whole of her fish, 

 and her commercial travellers (all speaking Nor- 

 wegian fluently) travelled everywhere on the coast- 

 line and sold their goods. Nearly everything in 

 the shops was German. No English commercial 

 traveller ever touched these remote regions. Almost 

 the only imports from our islands were Manchester 



