12 
LAND & WATER 
November 15, 1917 
Sweden and the War 
Bv F. Henriksson, Author of England in the World's War (just published in Sweden) 
7.<jf' week Mr. Hcnriksfioyi reriaced iJie pnlitir/il siliui- 
lioH in SifeJrn, I torn the hefiinning, 0/ lite uar until the 
formation of a I.iherol-Soeuii Demoeral Ministry, lintlt 
M. Xils Hdin. Lil)fiKa!, <?< I'rinv Minister, and M. Brant- 
uip, the well-knoivn Social Democrat, as Finance .\Jinister. 
It is this (iovernmcnt that is noic in power in S-weden. 
Hiith Liberals and Social Democrats are pro-Ally. It uas 
the Conservatives -.cho ivere pro-German, and at one time 
they received considerable .tup port from the Court. Since 
the la-^t General HLclion the King, has maintained a strictly 
constitutional attitude ; the sympathies of the ()ueen. a 
cousin of the Kaiser, continue ii>ith Germany, but there 
has been no active interference in public affairs- 
STRONG attempts were made to prevent Branting 
from entering the Government on account of his out- 
s()oken l-'ntente sympathies. He. himself, fully aware 
of the difficnlties |-)efore him, was far from an.xious to 
join tiie Ministry. But finally the leaders of the Left Parties 
had to take the logical consequences of the election and form a 
Liberal-Social-Democrat Executive, with the leader of the 
Lihenil Party, Nils Mden, Professor of Modern History, as 
Prime Minister and Hranting as Minister of Finance. The 
I'oreign Minister is the Lord Chief Justice J. Hellner, a 
moderate Liberal, who was a member of the Swedish Trade 
delegation which a year ago for some months stayed in 
London for negotiations with the British Government. 
Another member of the new (iovemment is the well-known 
Ikirrister Lofgren, who has visited London many times during 
the war and haj been a most indefatigable advocate of an 
arran'^ement with England and a severe critic of the 
Hammirskjold neutrality )X)licy. 
Circumstances accompanying the formation of the new 
fiovernment demonstrate how the events during the war 
have 'taught their lesson. The King lias shown wise insight 
into the forces shaping the future of the nations, and no irre- 
sponsible advisers have had power to interfere as tlfipy did in 
r<)i4. The " Pro-German " group has lost its power to make 
mischief and so has the (ierman propaganda, although a few 
organs in the press, such as Aftonbladet, continue on their 
mad course. It is, however, to do them too much honour 
and to do the Swedish f)eople injustice to give those papers — 
as has been done lately — prominence in the English Press as 
representing any responsible or noteworthy Swedish opinion. 
We hear now ver\' little of Court influeinces, and Sven Hedin 
is silent. 
From their utterances it is clear that the new Ministers arc 
fully aware of the critical times, the difficulties before them, 
not" least in regard to external relations. The inheritance 
from the Hamwiarskjold administration has put the countrv 
in a position which has to be righted. The (Jnited States in 
the war alters the trade situation and the resultant sufferings 
of the population greatly for the worse, as America is master 
of its own produce, which the European Neutrals are in great 
want of, and needs no goods from them in exchange, but 
can demand as sole condition the stoppage of their export to 
Germany. Thus the United States ;.s an important point in 
the tightening of the blockade aims at stopping Swedish 
iron ore to (iermany. On the other hand, Germany uses the 
great bargaining power of coal, iron, potasli, dye-stufis, 
chemicals, etc., against the neutrals, who thus find them- 
selves more and more pressed " between the devil and the 
deep sea." Furthermore German ironmasters own several 
iron mines in Sweden and have a running contract for ore from , 
the Lapland mines entered into long before the war. How 
far the Swedish iron export to England is maintained, I 
cannot say, but the ex-Foreign Minister Lindman recently 
gave an exposition of S\veden's trade relations during 
the war, in which he said it was a mistake to believe in an 
r-normous increase of the Swedish iron ore export to' Germany 
during the war ; instead, there was a decrease in IQ16 of 
«ji).(\<K) tons compared with 1013. 
Thus the Government are aware that new and extremely 
serious problems are ahead. There are mistakes in the past 
which cannot be undone and suspicions, accumulated during 
recent years, remain. But whatever else may occur, it cannot 
from the Entente side be maintained with any justification 
that the Swedish Government is animated by any mental 
inclination towards Germany or influenced by forces in- 
ducing them to such partiality, for whatever reasons, in their 
determination to uphold Sweden's neutrality. It would be a 
mistake to surmise that ttiey could be prevailed upon to 
deviate from that resolution to guard their country's inde- 
pendetjce without which any nation would forfeit its right to 
existence. 
K seemingly small matter in connection with the change'of 
Government is worth notice. It is reported that the new 
?.'inisters made it a condition not to be under any oliJigation 
to receive .or wear decorations or appear before the King in 
State uniform. It is a break with monarchic, bureaucratic 
and other traditions of the old order which in reality reflects 
a kind of peaceful revolution. 
The new Premier's declaration of policy emphasises as 
the first task "to maintain, in accordance with the clearly ex- 
pressed will of the people, unswerving and strictly impartial 
neutrality in all directions and a corresponding trade policy." 
This is more explicit in its definition than any previous similar 
declaration. It also lays stress on the further developrnent of 
.the co-operation between the three Scandinavian Kingdoms 
which the war gradually has brought about. As a matter of 
fact, the solidarity of the Scandinavian peoples and their 
external policy has n9t been brought home to them' so strongly 
and with such a consolidating result since the time when 
Prussia, in her military ascendancy, dismembered Denmark. 
There are, of course, many divergent opinions and differing 
interests. Rut they concern essentially suliordina^e matters 
and do not disturb the conception of the larger unity of 
interests in the comity of nations which the war has im- 
pressed on the Scandinavian peoples. 
The Food Situation 
But as a natural consequence of the later development of 
the war, the greater part of the Government's declaration is 
concerned with the food situation in Sweden. Rationing 
is proceeding apace, and the outlook is very grave. There 
is a menace of famine in large parts of the country as famine 
is also creeping over the neighbouring I-'inland. Besides, 
there is an increasing shortage of such commodities as paraffin, 
candles, gas, etc., nece.s^ities of vitaL importance in those 
northern countries during the long dark winter. Schools and 
other institutions in parts of the country are likely to lie closed 
on this account. Tliere are public coUectipns of candles for 
schools and for the poor ; at the head of one of them is the 
Crown Princess Margaret. The whole town of I.'.alnKi, with 
100,000 inhabitants, received as its share for Octolx'r, only 
125 candles from the central rationing commission. The 
shortage of coal has compelled the authorities to extensive 
restrictions of railw'ay services and to adapt engines for 
burning jieat. Several industries are gradually closing down 
to a great extent. 
With the German successes in the Baltic a new problem 
seems to replace 4he Russian menace, which has disappeared 
in the wave of dissolution in that country. The new probleni 
of danger is German domination in' the Baltic and on the 
eastern Baltic shored. The same cliauvinistic opinion which 
earlier endeavoured to vindicate th6 German cause, now 
begins to express apprehension. Certain papers have 
lately said that a German domination of the Aland Mands 
might be a menace to Sweden just as the Russian domination. 
The Baltic was once a " Swedish lake," and from that time it 
has lived in the imagination of the people, stimulated by song 
and saga, as Swedish water. That explains greatly the 
efi'ect in the mind of the people of other and mightier Powers 
ruling that sea far. out in which hes the Swedish island of 
Gothland, the " pearl of the Baltic," full of Swedish memories 
from oldest times. 
Finalh, the Stockholm Conference which has had such 
prominent place in the public eye, should be mentioned. As 
a matter V)f fact, it practically play'ed no part in Swedish 
politics. It was scarcely touched "upon in the Election 
speeches. Except for the general intense longing for peace 
and as a possible help to attain peace, the conference 
apparently caused comparativelv little interest in Sweden.' 
Whether its intellectual home was in (iermany, and whether 
from there it was originally grafted oii some Dutch or Danish 
Socialists, as has been asserted, 1 do not know. But the 
fact that Branting accepted the cKainnanship of the Con- 
ference should be sufficient evidence of its bona-fide as far as 
he conceived the aim of that conference. Branting again is d 
champion for that organisation of infernational relations, 
those means of settling international conflicts, those guarantees 
against war and domination of militarism and bureaucratic 
despotism, those rights of nationalities and peoples, which 
President Wilson and leading British Statesmen so eloquently 
have described as their aim in the war. It was because he 
conceived and still conceives that the re-establishment of 
the co-operation of labour in difterent countries on a broader 
basis than the old international is necessary as a means to 
this end that ht Inboured for the Stockholm' Conference. 
