New Britain herald., 1916-07-14
Sfricf Neutrality 70 Bring Era 0f Prosperity in Sweden National Crisis Has Been Safely Passed and People Real ize King Will Not Permit the Poverty and Want
 That Go Hand in Hand With War.

Correspondence or IhO Associated PreSs.)
 Stockholm, June 3O.-The Swedish people are breathing more easily now than at any time since the war began They are convinced at last that their king and their government are de- termined to maintain a strict and i'm
 partial neutrality until peace shall have been declared and they are plugging with renewed vigor into a prosperity unprecedented in the his tory of the country.
 That Sweden would give up this prosperity and the happiness which has come with it for the perils, the poverty and the misery of war seemed unthinkable to the foreign observer, hut it cannot be denied that the political and international crisis . through which the country passed the latter part of May brought it danger ously near the brink of catastrophe Not that the people wanted war-far from it-but the anti-Russlan pro- raganda carried forward by an in- ffuential group of politicians known as the Activists attained for a time a momentum which threatened all the dictates of neutrality and was out kpokenly an effort to force Sweden into war with her traditional enemy, Russia and thus ally this party of Scandinavia with the Central Powers.
 The Activist movement was de- nounced by the Socialists and Liberals in the Swedish Parliament as more nro-German than pro-SWedish and was referred to on one occasion by Socialist leader Granting as having a "dangerously strong financial back ing" The pro-German press of Sweden carried the campaign at times 10 a violent extreme and the bitter less engendered between these papers end those representing the liberal and socialist elements of the country may not be effaced for years to come.
 The Liberals and, Socialists frankly feared for time that the influen- tiaI Activists would win over the sup pert Of the Conservative Party, which still controls the upper house of Parliament and is supposed to more than hold the balance of power in what is theoretically a coalition cabi- net But when the test came when the situation was at it's worst, the Conservatives threw their strength with the other two parties in Q, deter imitation to keep Sweden out of the war at any cost.
 All Plans Go Wrong.
 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 goven Swedish parliament which has given standing before the belligerent nations it had not enjoyed before. This agreement was the immediate result of an Activist interpolation in Parlia- l Ynent calling attention to the alleged permanent character of Notifications l being erected by the Russians on the Aland Islands in the Baltic, and ask ing what the government proposed to dc 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. Russia had given informal assurance to Sweden that the Notifications were only tenn porary, being erected for the purpose of protecting certain mine-fields and thus defending the islands from pos sible capture by the Germans. Sweden was further assured that the fortifi cations would be removed at the end of the present war.
 Have Commanding Position.
 The Aland islands command abso- Iutely 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 forti- fled and in the hands of Russia they practically make it impossible for Germany to use her navy. in the northern Baltic waters They also give Russia the opportunity for an out Ranking movement in the event of a German naval or military diversion north of the Gulf of Riga. Military 'gtrategistS attach much importance to the Baltic the coming summer and realize that it may play a very promi- nent part in the German campaign against Russia. All these facts, con- sidered together, led the liberals and socialists to the conclusion that the agitation of the Alands question was designed wholly in favor of the Ger mans. Sweden, and Russia, too, for that matter, fully expected when the war broke out that Germany at once would seize the Aland islands as a base for naval operations. The is- lands were entirely without protection Bg that LlIne ana LnelF pOSSeSSlod would have enabled Germany to bottle up the Gulf of Bothnia and safeguard all her operations in the Baltic-the very operations she must now under take if German arms are to pass Riga In the direction of PetrOgrad.
 But at the outbreak of the war Germany seemed to fear a British fleet might enter the Baltic through the Great Belt of Denmark and she kept the bulk of her navy in southern waters. Finally Denmark decided to close the Great Belt to all belligerents and she strewed 1t with powerful mines This action closed the only