SWEDEN’S PLACE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21244, 15 October 1940, Page 9

SWEDEN’S PLACE

HEMMED IN BY GERMANY EFFORTS TO SAVE FREEDOM CONCESSIONS MADE TO NAZIS Although Sweden is hemmed in by German-controlled territory and has little opportunity for proving any freedom to choose its own course, it continues to proclaim its neutrality and aloofness from the war, states the Christian Science Monitor. King Gustav stressed this policy before a specially convoked meeting of Parliament, when he stated that he was continuing his efforts to hold the country “aloof from war, while conserving its liberty and independence.” He went on to urge the nation to increase its preparedness. But despite its desire to maintain an independence that has remained intact for more than 100 years, the small nation fully realises that it is facing probably the gravest threat to its freedom since the struggle with Russia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As recently as July 8, Stockholm signed trade treaties with Germany and German-occupied Norway, virtually tying Swedish economy to the Ger-

man war effort. Swedes Less Rigid For all that Sweden is desperately clinging to such vestiges of independence and neutrality as remain to it. If it has succeeded better than some of the less fortunate small nations, it is largely because it has been less rigid than, say, Belgium or the Netherlands in its neutrality and ■ more elastic in adjusting itself to ! sudden shifts in power between the belligerents. j The workableness of this policy | was demonstrated during the World ! War when Sweden, faced with j acute shortage of food and other i supplies vital to its existence, was forced in 1917 to recognise Britain’s control of the seas and to meet British demands for trade preference A trade treaty was signed with the Allies which severely cut down ; Swedish trade with the Central ! Powers, restricted trade with neu- ! tval countries, surrendered a portion ! of the Swedish merchant marine to : the Allies, and provided for the ad--1 vancement of large credits to the j Allies as well.

KeDt Sweden Out of War In return for this concession Sweden was to receive rationed imports of food and other materials through the British blockade. While this policy may not have been in accordance with the strict letter, as defined in the Hague conventions, to Sweden it meant relief from a suffocating blockade and actually kept the country from involvement in the conflict. Swedish statesmen pointed out that Sweden had tried to impress upon both Germany and Britain that a neutral state had a legal right to tread a middle road, but neither Germany nor Britain were willing to admit that the rules of international law existed. Today Sweden is facing practically the same situation, although this time it is the potential German blockade of Sweden’s vital foreign trade which has forced Sweden to tip its neutrality in favour of one of the belligerents.

Sweden’s Position is Acute Thus Sweden has not only entered the German trade system to the practical exclusion of Britain, but it 1 has taken the line of expediency that since the war in Norway has come to an end, there is little harm in allowing Germans to pass troops across Swedish territory. This latter move is an even greater concession than that granted to Britain during the World War, but under the present circumstances Sweden’s neutrality is ev&n more gravely threatened. Instead of a neutral and friendly Norway on the west, there is today a Norway under German rule, forming an almost complete barrier to Swedish overseas trade. Instead of a more or less friendly Russia on the East, there is a potentially hostile Russia, coming closer to Sweden in its efforts to regain its former provinces on the Baltic. Instead of a Germany preoccupied with powerful British and French military resistance as in 1917, there is a Reich which has not only seized seven of Europe’s independent states and is exercising control over a dozen others, but a Reich which has already indicated its intention of forming a “German Union” of the north, placing Sweden under Nazi domination.

Thus Sweden was forced to sign multilateral trade agreements with Germany and German-occupied Denmark, and to contemplate increasing trade relations with Russia, Italy, and Hungary. Only One Way, Premier Says Sweden’s premier, Per Albin Hansson, explaining the new trade agreements, recognised that British markets are closed to Sweden and that the Swedes’ one hope of resuming business was through trade with Germany and Nazi-dominated areas. He also recognised the alternative to this policy when he said that “it has been impossible to overlook that seven European countries have been occupied by Germany, and France has accepted an armistice.” Thus necessarily dependent upon Germany for trade, Sweden accepts a measure of German domination. Whether Sweden can return to normal conditions before being forced to accept further German control is open to speculation. Germany has unofficially enunciated a policy for the Baltic and North Sea States which would bring them under Nazi domination and ••protection.” and as long as Germany exercises*the measure of control over the Continent as it does at the present time, such a move appears Quite possible. Sweden, meanwhile, is striving to forestall such an eventuality by acceding to most of the other demands made by Germany, and at the same time making it clear that it is determined to safeguard its freedom and independence.