THE BALTIC SEA.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13100, 27 April 1908, Page 7

THE BALTIC SEA.

A CONVENTION SIGNED

"United Press Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright.

LONDON, April 24,

Russia, Germany, Sweden and Denmark have signed a convention for the preservation of the status quo in the Baltic. The agreement contains a clause reserving Russian sovereign rights., This leaves tho door open for a possible revival of the Aland Islands question.

The question of the fortification of the Aland Islands in the Baltic has excited a good deal of interest at Home and in Europe of late. Russia fortified them prior to the Crimean war, but the forts were captured by the' Franco-British fleet, and owing to Aland's iniportanco for the freedom of the Baltic, and in. order to protect Sweden from the danger its renewed fortification would mean to her, a special treaty aeoument, signed by Russia, England, and France, was annexed to the Treaty of Paris (1856), in- which Russia undertook, as the text runs, "that the Aland Islands shall not be fortified ,and that no naval or military estaßlishment shall be created there. > The islands still belong administratively to Finland, and the inhabitants are of Swedish origin and speak Swedish. A few years later Russia tried to got the treaty set aside, but England refused to consent to this step. The separation of Sweden and Norway gay© Russia an opportunity of re-opening tlie question ,and it is said that emphasis was laid in London on the friendlier relations bet-ween Russia and England as the result of the Anglo-Russian convention, and the advantage toEngla.rvd of a st.ron _j naval base in the Baltic in tßio hands of a friendly Power.