HUN PLOTTERS IN SCANDINAVIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3093, 25 May 1917, Page 5

HUN PLOTTERS IN SCANDINAVIA

ATTEMPTED DYNAMITE OUTRAGES

AN ELABORATE SCHEME

Germany has no more scruples in compromising neutrals—even pro-German nentrals—in Europe tEan she has in America; and precisely the same kinds of plots are "being brewed here as have recently Jed to prosecutions in the United State. For months past stories of Swedo-Germau expeditions into Russia wftli the aim of destroying, railways mid military stores havo been current. As long as they were merely rumours I hesitated to report thorn. Nou\ however, these stories have been officially confirmed, at least in, their main details.

A week ago the' "Dagene Nyheter," which ' has rendered the Entente good service by exposing many German smug-' glihg, 'espionage, and attempted Press corruption deals, gave details of an elaborate plot.against Russia's munitions eomniunicntions in Finland. ' Since then the Press has been full of the eubject, and statements have been made the Swedish Minister of the Interior, M. von Sydow, and by the police in North Sweden, who. foiled the plot. This flot aimed at destroying largo stores of Russian war materials which are supposed to lie on tha Skibotten-Eovaniemi route, and also at destroying bridges, buildings, and other constructions along the primitive road. Skibotten is a village port in Norway, on the Lyngon Fiord, south-east of Tromso. It is alinost flie nearest point of the Norwegian coast to the tongue of Finnish territory which "nero runs north-east. Two hundred and fifty miles. to the south-east, at the terminus of the short branch railway from the main .Finnish lino in Tornea, lies Eovaniemi. Tho Swedish Press declares (what would otherwise for censorship reasons have better, not been mentioned) that vast stores of munitions havo passed along this route. How far German subjects took part in the preparation!! is not known. Tho leador on the spot was n Swedish Baron, Otto von Eosen, who appeared with an engineer . and at least two other persons in Vittangi, in North Sweden. The plan was' to enter Finland via tho village of Karesuando, which lies in Swedish territory on the frontier river Muonio Elf. At Vittangi tho expedition, stayed with a local clergyman; and at luaresuando ti\z ootaijpYratoMl called on another clergyman, who thereby rendered himself so suspect that when, later, he crossed the frontier in Lappland costume, lie was arrested by Russian gendarmes*.--A >few days ago. he was released; The Eosen expedition proclaimed that its aims were exclusively scientific; but from the first it was watched by the police, and it was etopped'at the frontier river when about to cross. Its stock of four hundred pounds of. "preserved meat" was examined and found to Lβ four hundred pounds of dynamite. One of its suspicious actions wns the sending up of rockets close to' the frontier. Thid action may be put in connection with tho statement of the local journal, "Nordskenflamma," that tho conspirators operated with a Finnish ■nobleman who had al- ; ready several times been in trouble with 1 the Russian Government. All the members of the expedition were heavily armed, but they made no resistance. They explained that the rocket signals were made aa fireworks to amuse the natives. The Lulea, newspapers add that Baron von Eosen and hia,friends were in! possession of large sums of money. A telegram from Tromso, in Norway, states that! "a Swedish Baron , ' has teen put there under arrest; and it is assumed that this is the expedition's leader.' i Swedes who. want good relations with the Entente are naturally displeased by these revelations, all the moro so because there is reason to believe such raids to be part of. a German system: In Denmark the police lately investigated a similar conspiracy, news oncerning which, owing to the extreme nervousness of the Zahle Cabinet, was kept out of the Press. The German conspiracy in Denmark involved the transport of explosives over two neutral coontries. In connection! with it at least one German was expelled.