SWEDEN AND THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2675, 22 January 1916, Page 14

SWEDEN AND THE WAR

INTERNAL POLITICS AN INTERESTING ARTICLE lA' cablegram from Stockholm, which was published in The Dominion yesterday, stated that King Gustav, in opening the Riksdag, urged the augmentation of defence to maintain neutrality. The Government, ho said, had more than onco been obliged to intervene against attempts to put Swedish trade nnder tho usurped control of another Power. In tie light of this, the following article, which appeared in the "Observer" from its special correspondent at Stockholm recent' ly, will be read with interest-.] Swedish internal politics aro entirely under the influence of tho war. _ "When I was here last spring tho Activist agitation in favour of war on the side of the Central Powers was beginning, and a violent counter-agitation by the Liberals aud Social Democrats was tho result. To-day I find the Social Democrats threatened with a split as a result of the same war agitation. Apart from that, newspapers are monopolised by the British submarine c-ampaigu in the Baltic and matters arising therefrom. Tho Right newspapers, which aye all pro-German ; are preaching that it was a vital Sweedish interest to prevent submarines from entering tho Baltic, and they complain that Sweden did not mine the Sound at the beginning of the war. Submarines, they declare are now watching for German ships as far north as Lulea, in the Gulf of Bothnia, not far from the Finnish frontier. The captains of German ships who are afraid to leave Swedish ports have foregathered in Oxelosund, tho otb export port, and in othor ports, and they complain openly that their Government cannot protect them. A Swedish captain who -arrived here yesterday tells me that in the last fortnight Germany has enormously increased tho number of her armed trawlers and patrol boats in the Baltic. He was stopped twice off the Danish island of Moen, the Germans suspecting him of being a convoy boat for British or Russian submarines. Newspapers assume that it is Great Britain's design'to stop all Swedo-German trade, even when in Swedish bottoms; and they declare that Sweden must not permit this, as it implies a claim to a blockade, which does not de facto exist. Alarmist stories calculated to increase suspicion of England appear in the guasi-Activist papers.

Socialist Split. ! The internecine war in the Socialist Party led this week to three prominent members being expelled. Professor Gustav Steffen, Dr. Jarte, and Dr. Larsson were accused of being among the anonymous collaborators in tho book "Sweden's Foreign Policy,". which demanded that Sweden should immediately take up arms with Germany. Professor £>tetfen is a member of the First Chamber, and is author of the book "War and Culture," which is entirely pro-German; and Dr.. Jarte is a prominent municipal councillor. The Social Democratic Party, thanks largely to the eloquence and zeal of its leader,. M. Hjalmar Branting, is not only neutralist, but is predominantly friendjy.to the Entente; and it was not going to tolerate members who clamour for war in alliance with Germaaiy. The three Socialists refused to tho question whether or not they had collaborated in the Activist book; . but they declared their sympathy with the contents of tho book. Some weeks ago. they WGre expelled from the Socialistic "Worker Commune" of this city; and now they have been expelled from tho party by a big majority. Tho Activist war agitation is tending t>o decline. The best , proof of that is that the demonstrations in favour "3f peace, organised two months back by M. Branting and by tho former. Liberal Premier, M. Karl Staaff (who died this month), have ceased. Tho chronology of tho Activist and the anti-Activist demonstrations throws a light on the Swedish war agitation. The agitation grows and declines, accoiding as the Austro-Germaris-are successful or not. During last winter, when Germany sqemed unable to make progress in either Russia or France, practically no Swedes agitated for war. Tho few who did wore described by M. Staaff to a Swede known to me as "a politician, two professors, and a few half-pay captains." This was hj-perbole, but it summed up the insignificance of the demand for war.

The war agitation increased and grew' violently aggressivo immediately nfter tho Austro-German offensive in Galicia; and it reached its height when the invaders took Warsaw and BrestLi tovsk. Then nearly every day the pro-German Press, headed by the "Aftonbladet" and "Allehanda," both evening papers, preached that Russia woul3 be . immediately crushed; and that the time had come for Sweden to detach Finland, as Germany, it was promised, would detach Poland, the Baltic Provinces, and even Little Russia. After. Hindenburg's dash to Molodetschno failed to cut off tiro Russian army, the Activists began to feel less confident; and with that their agitation weakened. Now the only unqualified Activists left are Dr. Adrian Mollin and a tew fellow-thinkers who write in "Det Nya Sverige." These not- only want war; they want the forcible union of the three Scandinavian States in which, as Mollin says, "Sweden shall play the role Prussia played in 1866." Breaches of Neutrality. In the Right Press pro-German sentiment (which is not the same thing as Activist war sentiment) is as strong as ever. Except for the "Social Democrat" and M. Karlgren's Liberal "Dai gens Nyheter," the Entepte has n<) Press champions in Stockholm. An instance of the way in which the Right Press treats all questions from the German standpoint is the treatment given to questions of breach of neutrality. The cases so far have heen: Russian warships shooting at a German cruiser in Gotland territorial waters; the alleged searching of- and blowing nj> of the Gorman steamer Germania by a British submarine in territorial waters; and the shooting by a German trawler at the Swedish submarinb Hvale! which cost a Swedish sailor his life. The Hvale when shot at carried the Swedish flag.

This last incident was by far the most serious; and M. Branting, with reason, writes: "If a British ship had fired the shot a good part of our Press would have clamoured for war." The Right Press treats the affair indulgently. Nearly all Right newspapers described tie incident as "regrcttaule." and lay emphasis on the action of 'the German Minister (Baron V. Lucius) in getting iii his humble apology before tho publio had even heard of the incident, whereas the British had not yet apologised for tiio Germania affair, though nearly a fortnight had passed since Sweden demanded an apology. The Foreign Ministry countered this complaint by publishing Sir Edward Grey's explanation that England must first communicate witli the accused British submarine. But there is a general and dangerous feeling here that our Foreign Office acts slowly and without much understanding of Swedish sentiment; and that Wilhelmstrasse, though it would stick at nothing where real German interests aro concerned, is very hannv in its way of making apologies, which cost nothing, and of organising funds for the families of victims of German blunders. The widow of the Ilvalo sailor is to got a German pension; and tho Swedes' remember that when three ships

sank on mines off Mailt,yluoto, in Finiiintl, Ht-'f 1- Hulliu oj'Kaniaed u victims' ifiwd, .which fiaid, Sweto £10 A Q0Q»