SWEDEN AND THE ALLIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1760, 4 December 1917, Page 4

SWEDEN AND THE ALLIES.

That the trend of recent events tends to incline Sweden more and more to the allies is the expressed opinion of a recent English visitor to Scandinavia. -The fear of Russia, which was the dominating feature of Swedish opinion during the first years of the War and rise to the so-called “Activist” movement in favour of Germany, as the only counterbalancing influence, has ! disappeared since the revolution in Russia, he states. The fall of Pan-Slavistic Imperialism, with its supposed expansive and aggressive tendencies, has dispelled this fear, and hopes are placed in the liberal democratic ideals and widely decentralising principles which have gained ground since the revolution. The prospect is promising for the security and future peace of the North. The three Scandinavian countries in their voluntary union, with their community of race, their traditions of national independence, and their love of liberty, will form another barrier to German hegemony. Their trading and seafaring abilities, their spirit of enterprize, will militate against the establishment of German commercial supremacy in the North. They are already becoming the highway between Western Europe and Russia and the Far Bast. A new-born trade with Russia on comprehensive lines is already springing up. While the policy of Sweden is one of neutrality, private feeling on the subject varies. Oipnions differ as to the origin and causes of the war, its general features, and possible conditions of peace. The invasion of Belgium is generally condemned. The treatment of Greece is variously judged. Indignation at certain German methods of warfare is fairly general, and is kept alive by the constant sinking of Scandinavian ships by German submarines, and the sufferings of their crews, as also by the proceedings of German spies in keeping these submarines posted as to the sailings of ships or providing bombs and infernal machines for blowing them up. Arrests and expulsions of such spies are constantly taking place, but it is not always easy to get sufficient proof of (heir nefarious doings to ensure conviction.