The Cordova daily times., 1916-06-28
SWEDEN |S SURE IF REMAINING
 NEUTRAL

SIOtNhOBM, June ~. - NNOiiCo- pondence of the Associated PressD-i The Swedish people are breathing more easily now than at any time since the war began. They are con vinced at last that their king and their government are determined to maintain a strict and impartial neu- trality until peace shall have been declared, and they are plunging with renewed vigor into a prosperity un- precedented in the history of the country.
 That Sweden would give up this prosperity and the happiness which has come with it for the perils, the poverty and misery of war seemed un- thinkable to the foreign observer, but it cannot be denied that the political and international crisis through which the country passed the latter part of May brought it dangerously near to the brink of catastrophe. Not that the people wanted war-far from it but the anti Russian propaganda car ried forward by an influential group of politicians known as the Activists which threatened all the dictates of neutrality and was outspokenly an eff, fort to force Sweden into war with her traditional enemy, Russia, and thus ally this part of Scandinavia with the central powers.
 This Actiyist movement was de- nounced by the Socialists and Liberals in the Swedish parliament as more proc German than pro-Swedish, and was referred 70 on one occasion by Socialist Leader Granting as having "a dangerously strong financial back ing" The pro.German press of Swe- den carried the campaign at times 10 violent extreme and the bitterness engendered between these papers and those representing the Liberal and So- cialist elements of the country may not be effaced for years to come.
 The Liberals and Socialists frankly feared for time that the influential Activists would win over the support of the Conservative party which still controls the upper house of parlia- ment. and is supposed to more than hold the balance of power in what is theoretically a coalition cabinet. But when the test came, when the situa- tion was at it's worst the Conservatives threw their strength with the other two parties in a determination to keep Sweden out of the war at any cost.
 It so happened that the Activist campaign, designed to upset the neu- trality of Sweden, actually brought about an agreement among the con tending political factions of the Swedish parliament. which has given Swedish neutrality a stability and a standing before the belligerent na- tions it had not enjoyed before This agreement was the immediate result of an Activist interpolation in par liament calling attention to the al legged permanent character of fortifi- cations being erected by the Russians on the Aland islands in the Baltic, and asking what the government pro- posed to do about it. At night the lights of the Alands are visible from the easternmost points of Sweden, and the nearest of these isles is but six hours sail from Stockholm. RussiS' had given her informal assurance to Sweden that the Qualifications were only temporary, being erected for the purpose of protecting certain mine fields and thus defending the islands from possible capture by the Ger mans. Sweden was further assured that the Qualifications would be re- moved at the end of the present war.
 The Aland islands command abso- lutely the waterways entering the gulf of Bothnia. and as a naval base they also command the entrance to the gulf of Finland, and hence the way to the Russian capital. Strongly fortified and in the hands of Russia, they practically make it impossible