NORWAY AND SWEDEN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 138, 10 June 1905, Page 3

NORWAY AND SWEDEN.

(To the Editor.) Sir.—''Unity i* strnegth" has become i ; a trite saving, ami anything tending to- j I wards disunion is nowadays looked upon j las a mistaken policy. The separation of ! I Norway from Sweden, though expected,! ■ comes rather as a shock to lovers of i 1 unity. 1 cannot aprree with your mornj ing contemporary "that tbe independence '; of Norway is of but trumpery value in ! the making of history.' . Only a small I piece of land divides Finland (which became Russian in 1800 from the Atlantic. 1 Splendid harbours, which, no doubt, are looked upon with jealous eyes by' Ru.s3ia, are available close to the Rus-1 sian frontier, and now that her expan-; sion had been checked in the Far East.' she will naturally do all in her power to strengthen her position nearer home. Already, it is stated, strategic roads have been built along the eastern border of Sweden by Russia, and it is absurd to; suppose that the value of these two countries is not thoroughly recognised! by Russia. Fortunately, aggression by! Russia in this direction must necessarily; Ibe hampered by the cost of building , aj ! new fleet, and by the probable payment: !of a large war indemnity, but in the; j course of a very few years her eyes will Ibe turned to the enormous advantages of the deep water fiords which lip so close to her frontiers, and when that time arrives the Norsemen will find that only by the , j help of '.heir next-door neighbours can I they hope to repel the tide of the MuscoI vite invasion.—l am. etc., ; unity.