King Christian X of Denmark has threatened to abdicate if the Nazi occupation authorities insist on the introduction of the Nuremberg laws in his country, it is learned here today from reliable neutral sources.
According to these sources, three pro-Nazi members of the Danish government some time ago prepared anti-Jewish legislation for Denmark. The three are Foreign Minister Erik Scavenius, Minister of Transport Gunnar-Larsen and Minister of Justice Theodore Jacobson. It is understood that at a meeting of the Danish cabinet last week, however, the assembled ministers rejected the pro-Nazis proposals and Premier Theodore Stauning refused to present them to the King.
As a result Scavenius is reported to have approached the king and asked him to override his ministers’ veto, but the monarch refused, stating that he would approve the anti-Jewish legislation only if it were unanimously approved by the Danish parliament. Last Saturday, therefore, the three anti-Semitic ministers presented their proposals to a nine-man special parliamentary committee, which proceeded to reject them unanimously. At this point, the reports disclose the Germans openly entered the picture and demanded that the Nuremberg laws be introduced immediately. It was then that King Christian threatened to abdicate. Whether the Germans will accede to the king’s desires or whether they will insist on Denmark adopting the entire Nazi program is not yet known.
Recently there has been intensified anti-Semitic activity in Denmark by the Nazi followers of Fritz Clausen, the Danish Quisling. Anti-Semitic vandals attempted to destroy a Copenhagen synagogue, statues of Danish-Jewish public figures have been defaced and some Jews have been molested in the streets. The Clausenists have been particularly active since Denmark’s forced adherence to the anti-Comintern pact in Berlin, last month.
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