NORWAY: Commission State

German patience, Adolf Hitler is fond of reminding the world, is parceled out in limited quantities. Last week the share allotted to Norway ran out. Taking to the radio in Oslo, Reich Commissioner to Norway Josef Terboven announced the end of Norway’s Monarchy and Parliament, the dissolution of all political parties except Major Vidkun Quisling’s Nasjonal Samling (National Union).

For three months Germany has tried to persuade Norwegians to put the yoke around their own necks, produce a Nazi-run Government of their own. But Norway turned stubborn at every turn. First efforts were directed at King Haakon, but he refused to abdicate. Then pressure was turned on the Storting (Parliament). Terboven demanded the deposition of Haakon by parliamentary decree, delegation of power to a Riksraad (National Council) willing to cooperate with Germany. To lend ideological coloring Nazi mystagogue Dr. Alfred Rosenberg turned out a neat phrase, embracing Norway, Sweden and Denmark in a Nazi “Community of Fate” (TIME, July 22). But the Storting would have no Rosenberg fate.

Three weeks ago Germany tried to fake a fait accompli. Berlin newsmen reported that the Storting had met, declared King Haakon “no longer able to function” and appointed as “Regent Without Portfolio” Ingolf Elster Christensen. The Norwegian Government in London promptly replied that Haakon had not been deposed, that the Storting had not even met. Christensen, it explained, had held the same post since the collapse of Naziphile Quisling’s self-appointed premiership in April. With the consent of King Haakon he was still heading the Norwegian Administrative Committee, which acts as a sort of loose civilian government under the watchful eye of the German Army.

With the return to Oslo of Major Quisling, after a two-month stay in Berlin, Norwegian feeling boiled over. Despite Gestapo terrorism, leaflets, chain letters and mimeographed pamphlets flooded the country shouting opposition to Germany. Fifty thousand copies of the Norwegian Ten Commandments urged loyalty to “King Haakon and the Government you yourself elected,” hate for Adolf Hitler and his supporters, death for all quislings and any who consort with them. With a spunky show of defiance 149 out of 150 Norwegian Deputies banded together in what they called an Anti-Quisling Front. Norwegian wits shortened the Reich Commissioner’s surname by a syllable, began calling him Boven (Norse for thief).

This was too much for Germany. Though Quisling’s name had become a worldwide synonym for traitor, though his domestic political backing had proved illusory, he appeared the only possible German straw man. Press criticism of him was forbidden and Alfred Nilsen, editor of the Norwegian Labor Party’s Arbeiderbladet, was jailed for expressing “degrading judgments” of “an exponent of National Socialism.”

So last week Quisling was proclaimed Norway’s sole political leader, heading a State Council of 13 commissioners selected by Terboven. Germany’s army of occupation was to remain indefinitely. Norway was to have no foreign relations with any nation except Germany. On the broader outlines of Norway’s Government Terboven was ominously vague. Its future, Boven Terboven warned, would depend on Norway’s obedience: “The only avenue by which the Norwegians can regain a large measure of freedom and independence is the Nasjonal Samling. The decision will be an internal affair of the Norwegian people.”