OUR ENEMIES.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 January 1918, Page 5

OUR ENEMIES.

THEIR “GHOULISH BARONS.” VEDISH QUEEN INSPIRER

SWEDISH QUEEN INSPIRER OP

PRO-GERMANISM

Sweden's traditional fear of her powerful neighbour, Russia, first opened the doer to German influence.Once an entrance had been made, Germany rapidly and surely established her grip on her easy prey. In the King and his German Queen she found willing agents, ami from their Court the cancer of Prussianism spread throughout the circles affected by Court favour. The influence of the King,, who is greatly swayed by ■his German wife, is something more than merely social. It must bo remembered that though they are responsible to the Riksdag, the King appoints and dismisses his Ministers. The Government that has held power since the war has been out-and-out pro-German. ( Dr. Branting has openly charged the Swedish Foreign Office with complicity in the German “bomb complot” brought to light in Christiania. The' German Le-

gation* in Stockholm and certain houses of which the addresses have been published again and again are known to have been the headquarters of the conspiracy

German money is powerfully represented in Sweden’s Parliament. Under the communal system of voting, all incorporated societies have votes for the Upper House. The English Church in Stockholm, for example, as an incorporated society, has 40 votes, which, it should be said, have never been used. But the German money in the multitudinous inccz’pcrated companies of Sweden sways their votes in favour of pro-Germans, and the importance of this may readily be grasped when it is remembered how much German money there is in Swedish companies, and that the Upper and Lower Houses sit together for certain purposes, including finance. CHANCES OF PROFIT.

The strong pro-German sympathies of the commercial class jvere strengthened when war broke "out 'by the enormous opportunities it offered for making money by selling food and commodities of all kinds to Germany at inflated prices. The men of this, class—“ghoulish they nickname them in Sweden —stripped the country to the danger point of food products of all kinds. For a time the producers and the dealers who sold to them were well content with their share of the German gold, and as' for the “ghoulish baron,” his heart was where the treasure was. Vast sums of money have also been made in Sweden by selling steel and iron ore to Germany

It is almost-unnecessary to describe the German methods of propaganda in Sweden. In one of Stockholm's principal streets is a comfortable house called the Jorden Rundt. The door is open to all who care to enter". In the reception rooms are posted telegrams recording the latest German victories. Certainly there are also versions of British official reports. For all there is nothing to pay, but for the comfortable cinema thea'fl'e on the ground floor a small charge is exacted. The films are made in Germany. It was the only place of entertainment open in Stockholm while I was there, and it was always full.

Dr. Branting and the pro-Ally party have steadily contended against these influences, and the spirit of *ahtiGermanism” has been for some time rapidly spreading through the coun-try-springing upwards from the poorest of the people. Its growth will be vastly accelerated by the humiliating revelations of the Swedish Govern-

ment’s perfidy (Dr. Branting, who is the leader of the Socialist Party, last week had to resign his portfolio in the National Cabinet. German influence again!)