The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-03-27
RUSSIA EPARING
TO GRAB SCANDINAVIA
Cars Fingers are Said to be Reach
Ing Out Toward Sweden
and Norway.

y
STA preparing to grab the Scandina-
Wan peninsula? This question is be-
ing thoroughly threshed out in the
campaign that Is now on looking to
the election OF new riksdag. A
good many facts have been brought
forward, which despite semi-offlcial
denials from St Petersburg, tend to
support the belief prevalent through
out Sweden and to a certain extent IN
Norway, that there Is real and immi-
nent danger OF Russian aggression,
and consequently ample justification
for an immediate and heavy increase
of expenditure for the national de-
tense.
Here are some of the charges
against Russia that are made by the
conservatives who are supporting
King Gustav's program for length
ening without delay the term of COM
pulsory military service as well as
extensive appropriations for enlarg-
ing the navy and improving the land
Notifications. Finland, just across
the Gulf OF .Dothnia IS now being per-
manently garrisonedn by the Twenty
second Russian army division-25, 00t
men. Two other divisions are sta
toned just over ths Finnish border,
near st. Petersburg, from which To-
caiity they could be Drawn and thrown
into Sweden within ten days by means
of the new military railways which
have recently been completed in Fin
land and which extend right up to
the Swedish frontier. Army strate-
gists assert that within three weeks
Russia could place 10000 men in the
field against Sweden.
In the past three years Russia has
been secretly engaged in building ex-
tensive Notifications on the Finnish
west coast, and is now said to be vio-
lating tbs treaty Of Paris OF 1856
whereby the Aland Islands were to
remain unfortified. For several
months past there has been an I'M
usual increase in the number of Rus
sian tramps and peddlers throughout
Sweden, especially along the eastern
coast in the north. A number of these
VIII IN arrested we're found to be In
possession of military maps similar
to those used by the Swedish general
staff. 1t was noted that others. who
protested to be merely wandering
Russian peasants looking for work,
not only bors no signs of manual
labor on their hands but could speak
Swedish f1uently. In this connection
the espionage scandal of last fall Is
recalled as the result Of which the
then Russian minister and his mill
tary attache w are compelled to leave
the country. 1t was also openly
charged that the former Princess
Maria Pavlovna, wife Of Prince VIII
helm, second son OF King Gustav, was
a particularly active Russian spy. She,
too, had fled. and the prince is now
suing for divorce.
The Swedish conservatives are
making good use in their campaign
of the words of DR.. Fritjof Nansen,
the Arctic explorer. who in address
ing an anttgovernment mass-me citing
the other day in Christiania attacked
the radicals for preferring the promo
ton of all sorts Of social reforms In
stead of increasing Norway's de-
lenses, and said: L fsar that the day
will soon come when Norway ana
Sweden will have to unite against a
common enemy for the defense of
their neutrality and Independence"
In the meantime Russia Is doing all
she can to allay the Swedish suspt
cions. Says the Novoye Vrenya, semi
official organ Of the ST. Petersburg
governm nt: IF the Swedes should
exercise little more perspicacity
they would readily sse that their po-
tential enemy is Germany, and that
it is from the Wilhelm strasse that
their baseless suspicious Of Russia's
Interior designs against its Scandina-
Wan friend and neighbor have been
sostered. In case Of an armed col
lision between Russia and Germany
the latter power would at once en-
deavor to establish a naval base at
some point on the Swedish coast;