The Minneapolis journal., 1905-11-05
THE POWERS MADE
SWEDEN COMPROMISE


By S. g. Hammer, Special Co
Christiania, Norway, Oct. 16:.-The i.
CARLSBAD .agreement was approved bX
The storthing last Monday night at l 80 |
a.m., after debate, which will most
probably long stand out as a great con-
3ribution to, the. history, of this mo-
mentous summer. On Friday last the |
agreement which was passed in the
by 101 votes against 16, was
unanimously adopted in both chambers
of the Swedish riksdag and on the same |
day a Swedish ministerial proposal for
the dissolution Of union on the basis of
the Karlstad agreement was laid before |
passed by the Swedish riksdag and the |
S'union between Norway and Sweden "
will hereafter be of interest only to
students of political history.
From a Norwegian point Of view,
need not tell you that the decision in
the, Swedish riksdag has been received
with a telling of profound relief. 1t
appears from the very acceptance on
our part of the Swedish conditions that
find these. conditions unreasonable and
offensive, but we accepted them in order
to end the quarrel in peaceful way.
, Enm1ty Between Brother Nations.
From political point of view these
conditions, as 1 have told you before,
have raised a wall between Norwegians
and Swedes which it may take genera
tions to pull down, and it.. is mere
hypocrisy or ignorance to speak of good
and amicabIe relations between the two
nations In the true sense OF the word
for years to come. In fact, | think our
feelings after all our sad experiences,
can be summed up in the words of one
moment of parting, when one of his
Swedish colleagues expressed the hope
to salute him or one Of his Norwegians
colleagues as Norway's ambassador IN
Stockholm, gave this reply:
81 can assure you, sir, that after our
experiences at this conference, neither
nor any of my colleagues will ever set
our feet on Swedish soil if we possibly
can avoid it,
Nevertheless it cannot be denied that
the debate in the stOrthing hasato GER
tain extent thrown a, new light on the
Swedish conditions and made them ap-
pear less humiliating to our nation. This
is, however, not due to any consldera-
tion to us on>the part Of Sweden, but to
diplomatic; pressure from without which
forced Sweden to give way at the
eleventh hour. This point is one of chief
Importance for a fair understanding OF
the whole situation and it may there
fore be Of interest to the readers of
T h j our a to see a brief extract
from the agreement debate.
How Agreement Was Reached.
Starting from the situation on June
7, the majority said: "On going to
our decision on that memorable day, we
had the alternative, between a king
without a government and a govern,
ment& without king. The latter alter
native seemed to involve the smallest
responsibility and accordingly we de
cided i'm favor of Sweden, notwith,
standing all historical documents, ano
sworn obligations to the contrary con
sidered Norway as a mere province
and from this conviction sprang the
Swedish conditions which from a : mora ne? r
as well as from a~political point of view
are equally unfounded. After. having
declared by the famous referendum OF
Aug. 13 that the dissolution of tht
union was heart s desire to us, nego
tiations were opened between Norway
and Sweden. .,%.--1.
I""The situation was. briefly this: a
united Norway and a. united Swede1
had to negotiate on conditions owe
which they disagreed as widely as pos
sibly. How to reconcile them but by ;
COMPROMISED Norway would not Civ
way ,on the frontier fortifcation ques
ton, as it was obvious from Sweden
claim as to Kongsvinger, that she In
tended to hurt us in the very heart O
ours defense. The Swedish negotiator
obstinately stuck to the conditions 0
the riksdag, which in fact had the char
acter of an ultimatum. The decision
drew near.
E'The first Karlstad conference cam
to an end without any result. The sec
ond one opened under the worst aus
pices. Our delegates, like all of Us
were filed with the DEEPEST distrust t
the country who wanted frontier fort
resses' in the second defense line o
Norway. The negotiations were ten
porarily broken off; both parties with
drew, and Mr.. Loevland, as he told Il
in the debate, was sitting in the hote
with his watch in his hand in order t
take down the very minute when tn
final rupture would. take place. Wha
then. happened was this:=
Intervention of the Powers.
ga friendly power among the smalle
states of Europe, alarmed over the crit
icaf development of events on the Scar
dinavian peninsula, applied to the an
bassadors of great powers accredited t
her and drew their attention to the al
preaching war between Norway an
Sweden. The ambassadors prompt
conferred with their respective govern
nients, and explained to them the que
tion at issue between tn two countrit
and the difficulties involved in wa
They also pointed out that the Nerw
giafis were willing to give way on tt
frontier fortifcation question on cond
tion that Kongsvinger, the demand {
I'd which could not be considered frol
tier fortress, should be abandoned /
. Sweden. The righteousness Of tn
claim on the part of Norway was
opders obvious to the disinterested poy
erSiand, as consequence the powers r
solved to make what in the diplomat
language is called 'demarche towar'
Sweden.
=. Russia Led the Way.
"Russia took the initiative in come
tion with France. Germany and En-
land followed the lead, the former pow
with special reference to Kongsvingt
while the other powers spoke of the s
uation in general. All of. them Sc
pected' Sweden to give way. I'll
Warming was too grave not to be unde
:. stood at Stockholm and accordingly t
negotiations were resumed on t
part of Sweden and brought to an e1
Witl,the result known to your readers.
This is the true, never-before- -pu
fshed report; of the Karlstad conff
ence, from which it will be seen that
,4rf II,,1,oy