500 
THE AMEBIC AN-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW 
Norway 
«fl The minister of foreign affairs, Dr. Arnold Raestad, handed in his 
resignation on May 30, and the king appointed Mr. Johan Lud\ ig 
Mowinckel to take over temporarily the duties of the foreign office 
while retaining his portfolio as minister of commerce. Dr. Raestad’s 
resignation was occasioned by the commercial treaty negotiations 
with Spain, the foreign minister refusing to accept Spain’s chief con¬ 
dition, the obligatory importation into Norway of half a million litres 
of strong wine yearly, without first securing the consent of the people 
through a referendum. The other members of the cabinet were of 
the opinion that the government had authority to settle the matter 
without a new appeal to the voters. The Radical papers pay a tribute 
to Dr. Rfestad’s ability and patriotism, while the Conservative papers 
call his tenure of office a failure and criticize particularly the commer¬ 
cial treaty with Russia as well as his unsuccessful negotiations with 
Spain. Mr. Mowinckel, the new foreign minister, has for the last 
fifteen years been in the front rank of Norway s liberal politicians. 
He was one of the presidents of the Storting from 1915 to 1918 and 
has been minister of commerce since the formation of the Blehr cab¬ 
inet in June last year. Mr. Mowinckel was chairman of the Nor¬ 
wegian delegation to the Genoa conference. He is a friend of Scan¬ 
dinavian co-operation and, a few years ago, donated 100,000 kronei 
to the society Norden, which has for its purpose the promotion of good 
will and understanding among the three neighboring countries of the 
North. <J The Genoa pact regarding Russia was unanimously ac¬ 
cepted by the Storting on June 10, with the reservation that this step 
shall not prevent the signing of separate agreements with Russia, in 
so far as these are a natural outgrowth of already existing treaties. 
At the same time the Storting accepted the invitation to the Hague 
conference, Mr. Mowinckel explaining that the Norwegian dele¬ 
gates would act chiefly as observers as they had no authority to com¬ 
mit their country to any line of action without the assent of the 
Storthing. The Norwegian minister in London, Mr. Benjamin 1 ogt, 
has been appointed chairman of the Hague delegation. The Gov¬ 
ernment has requested that the Storthing empower it to notify the 
governments of England, France, Germany, and Russia that Norway 
considers the so-called Integrity Treaty as having expired. This 
treaty, which guaranteed the integrity of Norway, was signed by 
England and the other great powers in 1907. It has now been made 
superfluous by the great political changes resulting from the war 
and by the establishment of the League of Nations, C| By the death 
of Fredrik Stang Lund, on June 13, at the age of 63, Norway has lost 
its most brilliant barrister. Mr. Stang Lund was also an influential 
politician and at one time a member of the government. 
