SWEDEN AND NORWAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2674, 14 June 1905, Page 19

SWEDEN AND NORWAY.

TERMINATING THE UNION. THE TRICOLOUR IN NORWAY. CHRISTIANIA, June 7. The Norwegian press states that the Storthing intends to adopt resolutions virtually dethroning King Oscar and installing a responsible Government to govern in his name. The Storthing has resolved that the State Council, acting as a Government, «hall exercise the powers appertaining to the King, and that the union, of Sweden under one King shall be dissolved. The Storthing also asked King Oscar's co-opera-tion in selecting a young Bemadotte Prince for the Norwegian Throne. w After passing the resolution the Storthing drew up •an address asking for his Majesty's co-operation, and assuring him that they had no ill-feeling towards him, his dynasty, or the Swedish nation. June 8.

The Norwegians m the diplomatic ser Tice have resigned. M. Michelsen, the Norwegian Premier explained to the Storthing that Kinj Oscar's refusal to accept Ministers' resig nations, and his (the King's) inability t( establish an alternative Government, ren tiered the royal powers inoperative anc dissolved, the union. - " . June 9. ,- . -King- Oscar refused to receive tin - IStorfelung's deputation. > LONDON, June 8. The Storthing's proclamation appeals to ,'the people" io support the Government and maintain their independence. The Norwegian newspapers and the people express unbounded delight at regaining their freedom as a sovereign etate. The Storthing adopted the resolutions in solemn silence. The Swedish press, while denouncing the revolution, states that no Swedish party or. politician would compel or persuade the- Norwegians to maintain a union ■which had become a burden. It demands the removal of all Norwegians from the diplomatic and consular services. June 9. The Norwegian- crisis is watched with keen interest in Hungary. An extraordinary session of the Swedish Riksdag will be held on the 26th hist. June 11. The Tricolour has been substituted for -"the Union flag throughout Norway. The troops and the public cheered, heartily when the national emblem was displayed. It is not improbable that King Oscar ■will allow one of his sons to become King of Norway. There 'is a great demonstration of loyalty «nd devotion to King Oscar throughout Sweden. The Russian newspapers regret that Count LamsdorfFs diplomacy neglected the ■opportunity of winning Norwegian sympathies. THE SITUATION IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY. In view of our cablegrams this morning, the following article from the Spectator is Cf interest: — Those who know the facts at first hand -er-3 inclined to believe that the dispute between Sweden and Norway is underrated by most observers in this country. The contest rages round the control of the Foreign Office and the .Consular Service as a _pivot, but it is really a struggle for and against separation. The Swedes have surrendered almost every point at issue, without in the least conciliating the great body of Norwegian opinion. The voters in the latter country, as well as a majority of the members of the Storthing, have been carefully educated by orators who resent the control of Stockholm, in distrust of all that Swedish statesmen propose — a distrust which includes the Court, and would render obedience to a common Crown, if that were the compromise attempted, speedily impossible. Some- authority must be left to the King, and the Norwegians would always fancy that it was used against them under Swedish advice, and with the secret object of reducing them onoa more fco the position of a, dependent people. The truth is both Cations, though aware of their common origin, and using languages intelligible to both peoples, have grown up in different circumstances and are devoted to different ideals. Norway is a country of democratic freeholders, more nearly akin to the farmers of the Western States of America than to any European people ; while the Swedes (Bre imbued with the sentiments of men who

have long respected a powerful aristocracy. The former, with many virtues, are overfrugal, suspicious, and obstinate; while the latter are easy going and generous, but apt to believe themselves superior to their rivals, and to make that fancied superiority socially manifest in many galling ways. They are partners, but not friends ; and wo are all aware when that is the case that even kinship counts for very little. The Norwegians — oven those who deny it — intend to claim independence-, and it is doubtful whether, when independent, they can contract a warm alliance with the partner they have quitted. The old suspicions will always be at work, and the politicians of/ the. smaller State will always declare that the smaller people are being dragged by the larger one into controversies and implicated in ambitions which involve no interest of theirs.

It may bo asked whether it is out of the question for the Swedes in the last resort to apply foroe ; and no doubt if Scandinavia were in the Pacific that might be the final alternative. As matters stand, however, it could hardly be adopted. Tho Swedes outnumber the Norwegians by two to one, are much the wealthier, and are full of the historic military pride which helps so much to make good soldiers. Sweden, it is just possible, might by a great effort conquer Norway, but victory would be achieved -at a ruinous cost. The Norwegians are brave, they are protected by the configuration of their country, and they would never accept a defeat, which would of necessity destroy other liberties. A draeooned Norway is inconceivable, and would not be worth retention, even if the Swedes, who are essentially a kindly folk, were in the least prepared to keep np in a people once so closely knit to themselves a system of repression, espionage, and heavy punishments for

treason. Moreover, in any suoh contest the Norwegians might find friends, and friends who might be very dangerous to themselves as well as to Sweden. It is one of the drawbacks to the otherwise most beneficial existence of small States that they are constantly objects of desire to nations more powerful than themselves; and Norway, who seems to most Englishmen so safe in her isolation, has a close and very ambitious neighbour. The Russians have still nc acoess to the open water, and if they are finally beaten by Japan will be thrown back upon ancient projects in Europe, one of which, it cannot be doubted, is to seat themselves upon the shores of the North Atlantic, and so enter upon that free communion with the commerce of the world for which every nation thirsts. The frontier between Norway and Russia is hopelessly indefensible, while Norway possesses atTleast two ports. Mammerfest and Tromso, which would exactly suit both Russian traders and the Russian Admiralty. There is' a vague impression current liere that both England and France might prohibit such an extension of the Russian frontier; but war with Russia is always a formidable nuisance to any Power except Germany, because the conqueror could claim nothing in return for his sacrifices, and, moreover it might not be necessary for the astute politicians of St. Petersburg to resort to violence. Big

States can offer little States a great deal, — and can worry them a great deal without actually declaring war. Norway independent will always be watching Sweden, and within six months of the separation there will be a Russian party in Ohri&tiania with endless command of money, and probably many devoted friends. The Dutch people, for example, axe as a people most jealous of German interference. And yet there are Dutch statesmen who would bind Holland to Germany by strict commercial treaties, and then in the end agree to her entrance into the Empire upon the Bavarian footing. We are not in any way dreaming when we declare that dangers such as we have indicated arc visible on a not remote horizon, and we must say, .though we admire the Norwegians as a people who are

among the few capable of self-government, that we think them entirely in the wrong in staking their own future, and the peace of the world, upon a struggle for a dignity which will bring them so little, reward. To be independent without cower of influencing the remainder of mankind is of benefib only to the imagination of a people, and' in thsir union with Sweden the people of tho smaller State have very little that is substantial to complain of. There is not even that difference of faith which divided Holland^ from Belgium, or thai racial antagonism which Celtic Irishmen plead against Great Britain. They manage their own internal affairs through their own representatives entirely as they please; they have arranged their own society in accordance with their own convictions having abolished the last vestiges of aristocraticdominancy, even -to the titles formerly horn© by their great families. The. PrinceRegent is even now offering them a revision of the terms of union, with a view to more perfect equality between the. two States, which are not. even in foreign appreciation, completely merged in one another. If, as they " are understood to allege, the Swedes sometimes sneer at them as boors, that slight can best be answered by proving themselves the abler of the two nations, and by showing that a people can exhibit all the qualities of a self-restrained democracy even though it has a crown for a standard, and is asked to he loyal in that sense which Englishmen at least have found neither degradation nor a menace to their liberties. It can hardly be wise to risk an.

arrest in the steady progress of 90 years for a point not so much of honour as of pride, and to menace the long-continued peace of the northern world in order to stand apart from cousins against whom the only demonstrably true charge is that they think themselves a little better-mannered, and, with the habitual unwisdom of aristocrats, occasionally say so. One must not always trust the imagination, although its development does indicate that growth of intelligence which the sentitive often betray, together with a high-strung irritability, which may be the complement, but is cei'tainly the drawback, of their progress in development. It is a pity to •see Norsemen, who have clone so much for the nobler history of mankind, quarrelling among tfremselves, while races who had accepted Sovereigns at their hands threaten by mere increment of ?7iimbers to submerge them below the cogni t ice of the world.