THE AMERICAN-SCANDINA VI AN REVIEW 
303 
Denmark 
<1 Minister of Church Affairs J. C. Christensen, the son of a West 
Jutland peasant, leader of the Liberal opposition from 1894 to 1901, 
later one of the moving forces in the Government, and the mainstay in 
the work of administration and legislation during the first quarter of 
this century, is now proposing to retire from the cabinet. He will re¬ 
tain his seat in the Folketing, where he represents the Ringkjobing 
district, till next election, which will take place in 1924 at the latest. 
CJ The last great legislative work from his hand will be the bill pre¬ 
sented to the Folketing on February 16. It contains in all eight pro¬ 
visions dealing with church affairs: the appointment of vestrymen 
and the scope of their authority, the management and repair of 
churches, parochial release, the use of the church buildings, admission 
to the ministry, the election of bishops, the creation of two new bishop¬ 
rics, and the introduction of Danish canonical law into Slesvig. The 
bill is based on a report from a Clerical Commission which was ap¬ 
pointed a year ago on a very broad basis, chiefly by indirect vote of the 
existing boards of vestrymen. Its main object is to complete in church 
affairs the reunion of the North Slesvig provinces with the mother 
country. It is proposed to establish a new bishopric in Slesvig prob¬ 
ably with Haderslev as the bishop’s seat. CJ During the debate on the 
bill, fear was expressed that it might contain the hidden germ of a 
church hierarchy which would form an independent, more or less pow¬ 
erful, state within the State, a condition to which the majority of peo¬ 
ple in Denmark would certainly be opposed. To this objection Mr. 
Christensen replied that there was no danger on that score; the 
struggle between the principles of an ecclesiastical or a non-ecclesias- 
tical government was reserved for future generations, and was neither 
furthered nor anticipated by the proposed legislation. CJ The em¬ 
ployers’ declaration of lockout in February, followed by numerous 
sympathetic strikes, threw about 100,000 men out of work in addi¬ 
tion to those already unemployed as a result of the industrial crisis 
and the severe winter. In a few places, especially in seaport towns, 
slight disturbances have occurred, and the police have been ordered 
out, but on the whole the workmen whether locked out or on strike 
have behaved with much self-restraint. CJ Shipments of agricultural 
exports have been made from Copenhagen and Esbjerg, and by de¬ 
grees, as the ice that locked the harbors melted, also from other ports, 
with the aid of the farmers themselves. Very few hindrances have 
been placed in the way. Yet the prolonged cessation from economic 
production has naturally made the financial crisis more acute, and 
many banks have suffered heavily. CJ The leading statesman of Sles¬ 
vig, H. P. Hansen, once a member of the Prussian Diet and the Ger¬ 
man Reichstag, celebrated his sixtieth birthday on February 21. 
