SWEDEN'S MOVE TOWARD DISARMAMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19025, 21 August 1925, Page 4

SWEDEN'S MOVE TOWARD DISARMAMENT

Saving all the expenses of a_ disarmament conierence, Sweden of her own initiative has cut down her army to one-third of its previous .strength, and while some Swedish editors consider this action a risky one, it is highly praised by others. The new arrangement, we are reminded, is duo to the Socialist Democratic Government in Sweden, which has reduced the army from 363 companies of infantry to 122, from fifty troops of cavalry to seventeen, and from seventy-three batteries of artillery to twenty-six. Of twelve army divisions only four remain, it is related, and the cavalry has ceased to be an independent corps. Instead Sweden has an independent aviation corps. Tbo term of compulsory military service is still enforced, but much curtailed. College students are trained to he officers in case of an outbreak of war. The men not fitted for active military service, wo are told, were employed in various ways, such as cooking and cleaning, which did not involve fighting. Now, we are told, such work is done by regular fighting men. It appears further that the new law about compulsory military service takes into consideration those ethical and religious scruples which oppose any kind of military training. The conservative Swedish Press :s very sceptical about the Government’s procedure, and one Stockholm paper declares that, it has “ won its great victory at the expense of the safety of the country.” This newspaper adds: “ It was not without, that several ships in the harbor of Stockholm, ami numerous owners of private buildings hoisted their flags at halfmast the morning after the resolution of the Riksdag. The nation has been afflicted with such a grief ns none but a victorious enemy from the outside can inflict upon a country. The step which the majority of tho Swedish Riksdag lias taken is hound to humiliate the nation, and to lower its reputation. It shows a defective feeling of responsibility for the task of tlfe Swedish people in an unsettled and threatening age.” The effect of Sweden’s army reform is said to be of considerable importance to the Baltic region. Finland is especially concerned been use it fears the might of Russia’s Rod army.