British Means “Good”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29082, 19 December 1959, Page 10

British Means “Good”

The British can now relax in the safe knowledge that they are very popular among Norwegian schoolchildren. A poll carried out in Trondheim among 800 schoolchildren of 111-14 years of age by a professor at the Norwegian Education College showed that the children’s goodwill towards the British seems to be very deeprooted.

The children were given a list of 30 words and expressions with which to characterise a nation, and were then asked to pick out the words which they thought most fitting to the various peoples. The expressions most frequently used about the British were “hardworking,” “good seafarers,” “kind,” “industrious.” Many of the children in the higher age-groups did remember unfavourable historical episodes about the British, such as the capture of the Danish-Norwegian fleet in 1807 and the imprisonment by the British of the legendary Norwegian hero Terge Vigen, made famous through a poem by Henrik Ibsen. This, however, seemed to have little or no effect on their valuation of the British, who appeared to- be good in almost every sense—Reuter.