SCANDINAVIAN OPINIONS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 187, 30 June 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCANDINAVIAN OPINIONS.

Som.' time ago the "British Australasian" mentioned, rather prematurely,. as it. turned out, that Professor Gilbert -Murray had been chosen to state the case for the Allies in Sweden, at

the special invitation of the Union of Students' Societies in all the Swedish Universities, and had been asked to continue his journey to Norway .'tut Denmark for a similar purpose. Prof. Murray did actually go to Sweden en this delicate and important mission, but was prevented by the Scandinavian antl orities lrom speaking on any matters of military significance, to :Ikdisappointment, it is understood, not only of his fellow-countrymen, hut ot the Swedish >tudent.s If, however. r,>.> cannot interpret Great Britain tn the Scandinavian, Professor Murray tan at least translate Scandinavia to Great Britain, and his series of articles appealing in the "Westminster Gazette' are both illuminating and important. The German propaganda, he says, is a tremendous force. "In Sweden it lad a general start of 20 years or more in time of peace, and a special start ot three weeks at the beginning of the war, when all communication with England wn- cut off, and the fuM German legend wa, poured into Sweden in floods, for a long time the Swoosh newspapers got all their news fioiii German sources. Probably Swedi :i is the only country in the world where human" and highly educated men think the sinking of the Lusitania a legitimate piece oi' policy, ami the vio'ation of Belgium a necessary act of selfdefence. I i ven found a minister ct religion, a pleasant and well-informed man, who considered that the proper way to have avoided the war was lor Russia to have laid down her arm- and asked the Kaiser, as a disinterested ana high-minded person, to arbitrate: and that even now the same method was still open to the, Allies, and the same disinterested arbitrator was still willing to act I This sort ot argument did not shake me much. Nor yet did the questions of a sad Finnish lady, who wanted to know why we blew hid.an rajahs from guns for not volunteering, and why Lord Kitchener was so cruel to the fellaheen! Presumably sin was quoting a German leaflet. Perhap, the quaintest argument that I met with anywhere was Professor Liszt's final defence of the invasion of Belgium : the invasion was perfectly legal, because it has been discovered that there was a treatv of MO by which German

troop,; \wre to .•i-.---i.-st, in garrisoning the- fortns-e- of Liege and Nait.ur! (This i. worth thinking over. The treaty -,\as made in in the m'dst of the Napoleonic war, and long before the Kingdom of Belgium exist, d: And it has been "discovered'' afterwards, -o that only from some unconscious impulse towards rightenusm-ss,

and not from any knowledge of the treaty, that the German army crossed the frontier to perform its long-neg-lected duty in those garrisons.)" hw spite of tl;ese things, however, Professor Murray thinks there is little like* lihood that Sweden \\ 111 enter thewar. Tlie commercial classes are very strongly against it, the Democratic and Liberal Parties are actually friendly towards us, and a few weeks ago. it, .1 great Socialist Congress at Sio-.-k----holm, the majority carried a vote, resolving to meet by a general any attempt by the Government to enter the war or mobilise the army.