A RUSSO-SWEDISH HAND-CLASP.

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13488, 19 May 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

A RUSSO-SWEDISH HAND-CLASP.

The mutual suspicion between Russia and Sweden has diminished enough to permit an agreement between the two countries to link up their railroads for the first time. Up to this moment nervous apprehension hrj prevented the consummation of this step, which will be of great economic advantage to both countries. From the Westminster Gazette we glean the details of an agreement to join the Swedish system to the Finninsh railroads by a bridge from Hajaranda to Tornea. across the Russian" frontier. The Westminster Gazette proceeds:— "The plan is of great practical Anglo-Russian intercommunication, as at present traffic has to go by sledge in winter and ferry in summer. The Russo-Swcdish agreement provides for continuous work on the bridge till its completion. The Swedish State Railway Department will build the whole bridge, charging Russia the cost of the work and material on Russian soil or in Russian waters. The Swedish Government is thus placed in the unusual position of bridge-builder in a foreign State. The whole area of the work, both on the Russian and Swedisu sides, will be fenced off, and iiq erne admitted except with permits from (f.e Russian Frontier Guard. For the winter a wire fence will be run across the river. The bridge over the Tornea river will be for a single track, which will be of both Russian ai d Swedish gauge, so that trains of either country can pass, though not together. The bridge will be 350 yards long. The present provisional estimate of the total cost is 2,600,000 Swedish crowns (about £144,000). Provisionally a cable railway, with a capacity of 100 tons daily, is being built between Tornea and Haparanda, chiefly for use by the post and parcel-post services." The Stockholm Tidningen publishes :\ sharp protest against the "fixed idea" which seems to exist in the minds of French and British editors that Sweden is necessarily antagonistic to Russia. It says:— ''We should like to convince those .n Great Britain and in France who letain a sympathetic interest in Sweden of the misunderstanding involved in the words 'Swedish suspicions oi Russia, which are so often reiterated in the countries of the Entente." The Tidningen says that no hatred exists between the two peoples, and the only serious difference is that involved in their radically opposite conceptions of government. In Sweden, it continues —

"There is no suspicion that Russia contemplates attacking Sweden, or any doubt in the good faith of the Russian statesmen who from time to time have disavowed such intentions, hut at the same time it is not a mere condition of nervous distrust which prevents Swedes from envisaging the possibilities of Russian policy through tne spectacles that Great Britain .r.:d France would like to provide them with for this purpose." The changed relations between the two peoples is vividly reflected i 1 th.' Russian Press, where a belief was < nee confidently expressed that Sweden wa.certain to inin the Central Power l ?. To-day the Russian editors are oqu.ilIv assured that, come what may, Swedish neutrality will never lie disturbed. For example, the Petrograd Rvetch write--:—

"It would he naive to deny that the influence of Germany is very strong rot only among the comparatively small number of 'activists ' but also in the wide circles of the Swedish population. The presence in Sweden of a definite cultural and economic gravitation inwards Germanv is indubitable. To this must be added the Great advantage of Sweden's geographical pi.dti >n During the first two years of war the Swedes have learned to value the advantages of neutrality to a oountry which l%s at the crossroads between warring Powers, and the leaders of the Swedish tailing masses are firmly standing on their cruard. They know full well fiat if Sweden pie se r vcs her neutrality to the e"d sbo will reap such a rich harvest ihai all her wnr-timo profits will pale into insignificance."