Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-07-15
NORWAY.

"Private'' or public" politician,
that's the rub. In the address which
Bjornson made at the banquet given
to him by citizens of Bergen he re-
ferred to. an interesting chapter of
the negotiations between the govern
ments of Norway and Sweden with
regard to the establishment of con-
sular service for Norway. At crit
ical moment it looked as if the Swed-
ish negotiators would give up the
task for good. Bjornson called on
them and persuaded them to continue
the negotiations. So far there seems
to be no difference of opinion. In
said address Bjornson stated that he
had been requested by members of
the Norwegian cabinet to see the
Swedish negotiators, in other words,
that he did not perform that import
ant function merely as 6! ''private pol
itician," but the members of the Nor
Wegian cabinet will not admit that
they asked Bjornson to act as me-
diator between them and the Swedish
negotiators, and the press of Nor
way and Sweden is discussing the
matter.
Major General X. Hansen, general
inspector and head of the engineer
ing department of the Norwegian
army, has been invited by the king to
inspect the Notifications at Boden, in
northeastern Sweden, and to take
part in a trip on the Ofoten railway
1,,1v III
lot has invited the Norwegian gen.
eral to appear at Boden four or five
days before the arrival of the king,
and Elliot will conduct the Norwe-
gian general through the Swedish
Notifications along the boundary
lines of Russia.
Mother Utne" of Hardanger is
dead. She kept an old-fashioned tav-
ern at Utne, and her popularity
among all classes of people from all
parts of the world was rare indeed.
Her name was Torbjorg, and for II
years she was the most noted per-
sonage at Utne. Her picture may he
seen in the national gallery of Nor
way.
The returns of the Finmarken fish,
cries are the most satisfactory for
many years, and hundreds of men
are sorry because they were foolish
enough to stay away on account of
the talk about the Russian seal
scourge.
Fredrickstad has exported several
thousand tons of brick to South AfA-
ca.
Practically all the government
bonds are owned by foreign capital
lists.
Verdens Gang holds that it would
be good thing if the old country
Norwegians were a little less fond
of festivals and little more fond of
hard work.
Bjornson recently visited Hardan.
ger for the first time in his life, and
he had to make speech, of course.
Towards the close he drifted into
practical politics, saying in part: II
wish to say that in my opinion it
would be of the greatest benefit to
have the conservatives return to
power. In the. first place it is not
healthy for party to have free III
tercourse with the highest political
power for such long period of time
as in the case of the liberal party;
and moreover the Swedes have great
er confidence in the conservative par.
ty because the policy of the present
administration is ambiguous
A bronze bust of Arne Gorborg, by
Gustav Vigeland, has been bought for
the national gallery, the price being
$500.
Miss Bokken Lasson has been en-
gagged as actress and singer at the
royal theatre of Stuttgart, Germany.
The university extension course at
Trondhjem is attended by $50 per-
sons, mostly public school teachers.
A petition calls for an election in
Fredrikstad to decide whether ma
jority of the grown people of the city
are in favor of re-establishing the
Samlag (saloon). ::
There was a snowstorm in the
country around Roros June 10, and
the temperature dropped several de-
grees below the freezing point in the
mountains. Z :. 81: .@ IL