Threats to Scandinavia

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28268, 4 May 1957, Page 10

Threats to Scandinavia

Russia’s policy towards her Scandinavian neighbours since the end of the war has been a mixture of threats and blandishments. The blandishments have not weakened the determination of Norway and Denmark to stay within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; and Marshal Bulganin’s latest threat of the “ dreadful risks ” they run in permitting “ aggressive bases ” to be established on their soil have been answered as firmly as all the others. Indeed, Russia may not have expected Denmark and Norway to give way, because the charges simply are not true. Norway, the only Scandinavian country with a common frontier with Russia, has reiterated that it will not make bases available to foreign troops unless Norway is attacked or threatened with attack. There are no foreign bases on Danish home soil, though there are some American troops in Greenland. Sweden, which remains outside N.A.T.0., has also been showered with charges of espionage and subversive activity against the Soviet Union. The reason for the Soviet threats is not hard to see. The revolution now taking place in the armed services of the West means that eventually the ability of small nations to defend themselves will be vastly increased. The Scandinavian countries sooner or later will acquire guided missiles as a standard weapon, and, though the absence of American troops precludes the provision of

atomic warheads, these could be supplied if there was any threat of attack.

In his reply to Marshal Bulganin, the Norwegian Prime Minister (Mr Einar Gerhardsen) said, in effect, that defence is Norway’s own business; but he denied the Soviet charge that Norway, as a consequence of her - membership of N.A.T.0., might be forced to have foreign bombers, warships, and atomic weapons stationed on Norwegian territory against her own will. “It is a basic prin- “ ciple of the co-operation with“in N.A.T.0.”, he said, “that “each Individual member coun“try fully retains the right of “self-determination, and this “ naturally also applies to such “ vital questions as are here “ involved ”. Norway, he added, would never contribute to a policy having aggressive aims or permit her territory to be used for such purposes. Moreover, Mr Gerhardsen suggested a number of steps Russia could take if it really wanted to help reduce world tensions. A few months ago Russia might have tried blandishments in her series of Notes to Scandinavia and 'to other European countries; but today fair words from Russia, if they do not fall on deaf ears, are at least suspect. The Russians unmasked themselves in Budapest. Nowhere was revulsion against the suppression of the Hungarian revolt (which Norway regarded as a national demand for freedom and independence) more marked than in Scandinavia.