GREECE AND SWEDEN

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 57, 23 February 1918, Page 16

GREECE AND SWEDEN

A PARALLEL THAT MAY PROVE

" DEADLY."

The parallel between the royal houses lof Greece and Sweden is somewhat striking. If it is carried much further it may become, for King Gustavus, a "deadly" parallel (remarks the Cleveland "Plain Dealer"). Both Gustavus V. and ex-King Constantine are men of ability and foreefulneas. Before the outbreak of the war the Swedish monarch exercised large authority in the government of his nation, and was far more assertive than the usual run of twen-tieth-century constitutional kings. Instead of acquiescing silently in governmental policies which were distasteful to him, Gustavus dismissed Governments which declined to do his bidding, and the people of Sweden rather admired his temerity. Like.Constantine, whose father was a Danish prince, Gustavus is the scion of transplanted royalty. liis father was grandson of Marshal Bernadotte, a French civilian, who was arbitrarily chosen king by the Swedish Parliament. Gustavus has a German • wife. She is Victoria, daughter of the Grand Duke of Baden. Since the beginning of the war Queen Victoria has made no secret of her German sympathies. As Constantine's Sophia, the Kaiser's sister, was the most malign influence in the Greek royal household, so Victoria of Baden may be the evil genius of Gustavus. In Sweden, as it was in Greece, the pro-German sentiment is strongest in the king's coterie. The Swedish people, like the people of all civilised nations, look with horror on the German crimes. Neither the Icing nor his Prussophile Cabinet would attempt to force the nation into war as Germany's ally. It would be too dangerous an undertaking. The most that can be done is to maintain a malevolent neutrality toward the Allies, and to aid Potsdam as far as possible without getting caught at it. It has not as vet been made clear that the king himself is the head of the proGerman cabal at Stockholm, but he cannot escape responsibility either for the policy of his Ministers or for the utterances of his wife. This is especially true since it is well known that Gustavus is no weakling, but a vigorous and aggressive personality.