Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-07-22

whole nation was struck aghast that this crime against the country should not be punished more severely. The Germans involved we're acquitted.
 Of the NorWegians involved, two were captains on route steamers, be- tween Newcastle and Bergen, who had been paid to report to the Ger man espionage control in Bergen everything they saw in England and on their way between England and Norway.
 Spies Are Numerous.
 The espionage control was estab- lished, it is charged, by the Antarctic explorer, Lieutenant Filchner, who before the war, had been very kindly received everywhere in Norway, had been the guest of the Geographical society, and who now used his knowl- edge to plot against this country, draw Norwegian men in his net and make them traitors to their own coun- try. The whole press condemned Filchner. The whole nation felt ashamed and dishonorcd by this case remembering the way the Swedish Baron von Rosen, with his anthrax and glanders bacilli in sugar, was treated by Norwegan authorizes and the way German proved spy, Bau- meister, was allowed peacefully to go back to Germany.
 In the legislature is was strongly demanded that the police authorities and the department of justice, here after, should sec that the nation was ridden of such German pests.
 And in spite of all this, in spite of the. nearly unanimous demand to stop export of anything the cahntry needs for it's own citizens, the fish export to Germany still is going on and the export of home made farm products and canned milk is not stop ped, although the prospects for the people in the coming Gall and winter are worse than ever.
 Why the government, which week after week suffers humiliations at the hands of the Germans, has not stopped all exports on Germany un- til satisfaction is given, is regarded cialists agree with the socialists who criticise the government for having spent $100,000,00O in three years on the neutrality guard. The socialists say it would have been better to use this money to relieve the high cost of living, asserting that the naval and army defense is in too poor a condition to be of any use and that the money is wasted. Other citizens who believe in armament for the de- fense of the country now ask, with the socialists, what the country has obtained for the $100,000,00O. They indignantly declare that more than 400 Norwegian vessels have been de- stroyed, with the loss of 500 sailors, by the acts of so-called friendly" nation, that no excuse or satisfac- tion has been given for any of the numerous violations of the interna- tional law; that Norwegian sailors have been murdered in the life boats; i; money and private trinkets on board in Norwegian ships stolen by Ger man officers and taken to Germany; i; Norwegian government vessels in coast traffic in Norwegian waters man ports; and that not a shot has been fired from Norwegian gun to defend Norwegian rights, not a Nor wegian boat nor Norwegian sailor has been allowed to fight for his life. Meantime, they add, the coun- try which has spent $10O,O00,O0O is threatened by famine of food and fuel during the coming winter.
 Such criticism as the foregoing can be read every day in the most prom inent papers of the country and heard wherever two Norwegians speak of the situation. but the leading men in the cabinet seem not to listen to pub lie opinion or to he unwilling 10 sus- tain public opinion. The newspa- per Tidens Tegn, in an editorial the other day, criticising the political line Norway's government has fol- lowed said:
 There is something worse than war and its disasters and that is when nation loses it's self.respcct, the Norwegian nation these days is in danger of that"