Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-01-16
WHAT IS SWEDEN
GOING TO DO IN
PRESENT CRISIS?
Former u. S. Minister
w. w. Thomas Tells of
Friendship Of Swedish
People for United
States-Every Family
in the Land Has Rela-
tives Here.
BY William Widsery Thomas

tereStlng country. her place on Ine
globe-away up toward the North Pole
her midnight days and sunbright nights,
| her grand mountains and forest-fringed
lakes, and above all, perhaps, her kindly.
hospitable, chivalric people, all combine
to make Sweden a wonderland which the
world admires and loves.
! Just now Sweden is of special interest
on account of her attitude toward the
world war From her position and the
character OF her people, Sweden is today
undoubtedly the most important neutral
nation in the world.
I What is Sweden going to do? is ques-
ton which is now occupying many minds,
and the question is a serious one.
At the outset of any discussion of this
problem it is we'll to recognize the fact
that Sweden's situation is a difficult one;
To the east, across the Baltic and the Gulf
Of Bothnia. lies Russia: to the south. over
the Baltic, is Germany; to the west,
across the North sea, England-an great
Powers, all at war, and peaceful little
Sweden damned in between them. To
meet the demands of either of these war
ring nations, in even a slight degree.
! NlLHout lhCuiiilS Llo HOStliity VI lHc
other side. has been a difficult and intri-
cate task; but Sweden has performed the
task with good measure Of success:
sufficient to maintain her neutrality; and
let US recollect that neutrality is all we
can expect from Sweden, situated as she
now Is.
! Sweden's Army
! But does Sweden really wish to remain
neutral and will she be able to do so?
Will not her well-known sympathy with
Germany carry her over to the side Of the
Huns. so that she may become our ac-
tive enemy. at war with our Allies, and.
consequently, at war with us.
! This would be a disaster indeed. Though
numbering scarcely 100000 inhabitants,
Sweden could place in the field an army
of 100000 men, well-trained and equipped,
Intelligent and resourceful. She possesses
also an excellent little navy of modern
warships. They are not of the largest
size, but they are especially adapted for
fighting among the innumerable roc'-y
Islands, shoals and skeries which dot the
Swedish coast.
Such a force, inspired with the tradi-
tons of Sweden's heroic days, when, I'M
der her great kings-Gustavus Adolphus
and Charles XII-the Swedish armies
overran a great part Of Europe and con-
quered for their little native land a place
among the great Powers of the world,
would be formidable addition to the
forces of our foes.
| But In regard to the sympathy of Swe-
! H. foy
! trymen that this feeling is neither s,
so great nor Of SO long standing as we
Americans generally suppose. And base
this assertion upon an intimate acquain-
lance with Sweden and the Swedes for
more than half century.
! Some fifty years ago, In the early COS,
when Prussia and Austria attacked little
Denmark and wrested from her the pro-
vinces of Schleswig and Holstein, the
Swedes to man sympathzed with the
Danes and were bitterly hostile to the
est difficulty that the cabinet Of Stock
holm held back gallant King Carl from
marching at the head Of the Swedish ar.
my to the succor Of his sorely pressed
Scandinavian cousins across the narrow
sound
Fear of Russia
Again, in 1870 when the Germans were
taking their third step toward the con-
quest of the world and were fighting
France. the great majority of the Swe-
dish people sympathized with France and
were hostile to Germany. Many young
Swedish officers enlisted in the armies Of
France and fought bravely against the
Germans. Among these officers was a
Lieutenant Rape. who afterward rose to
be a general in the Swedish army and
minister Of War in the Swedish cabinet,
and. as personal friends, has narrated to
me some of his interesting experiences in
battling against the Teutons.
| Furthermore, it Is the simple truth to
say that the sympathy Of Sweden for
Germany could not be so much from love
Of Germany as fear of Russia And III
fear Is we'll founded. Russia and Sweden,
from time out Of mind have been enemies
Some two centuries ago Finland, most
Of the Russian Baltic provinces, in fact,
the very gorund where Petrograd. the
capital of Russia, now stands. were Swed.
ish soil. Then Swedens hero king,
Charles XII, was fighting Gear Peter, and
routing him, too. in almost every battle
But Peter learned the art Of war by his
defeats. His hosts were l!m1tless, and he
finally beat the WORKOUT and decimated
army of his master at Pultova. Had
Charles XII beaten Peter the Great, Swe.
den. not Russia. would have been the
great Power Of northern Europe.
After Sweden's defeat Russia continued
to encroach upon her. The Northern
Bear took one after the other of the
provinces Of this Scandinavian neighbor;
last Of all, some hundred years ago Swe-
den's greatest province, Finland. Indeed.
Russia has been and Is a continual men,
ace TO Sweden, and 1t was absolutely inn
possible for the Swedes not to sympathize
with any nation that was fighting its arch
hereditory enemy.
Love Of U. S. A.
| But Russia has now gone to pieces. The
bogy OF centuries Is unmasked and shown
not to be SO frghtful after all. And as
the fear OF Russia diminished, so will the
sympathy with Germany.
But Germany is not the only country
that has the sympathy Of Sweden. There
| Is no country in this world to which the
sympa thies of the entire middle and
working classes OF Sweden-the bone and