Norwegian motor vessel MV Segovia (750 tons of general cargo, including 140 tons of oil, 45 tons of cork, wine and almonds) goes missing in the North Atlantic off the West coast of Scotland, presumed sunk by U-55 (all 23 hands lost).
The speech on Jan 20 by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churhill, imploring neutral countries to support Finland (a thinly veiled invitation to Norway and Sweden to allow Allied troops passage across their territory to Finland), rebounds on him. He is reprimanded by British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax for interfering with foreign policy. Also, he is ignored by Norway and Sweden, who realize that British access to Finland is a means to choke off supplies of Swedish iron ore to Germany. They rightly suspect that Hitler would react to any Allied presence by intervention of his own. French Prime Minister Daladier favors Churchill’s plan as a way to fight the Germans away from French soil.
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