Evening star., 1941-02-26

The policy of neutrality at all
costs, of material and aid and every
thing short Of war" has not saved
Sweden. The luckless Swedes are
now surrounded on three sides by
armed Nazi divisions. Their coun-
try is shot through with Hitler
agents, Nazi businessmen" and Nazi
Gestapo spies No Swede can resist
the demands of Nazi representatives
and hope either to keep his position
or to make any real business profits.
Very few Swedes today can call their
souls their own. They are complete
ly under the heel of Hitler. Swedish
independence" is hollow sepulcher
Sweden will be swallowed up grad
ually, at the whins or convenience
Of the new masters of Europe.
Tragedy Of Scandinavia.
Latest information from Stock
holm assures me there is a great
band-wagon rush toward realism"
among Swedish leaders today.
Realism" means playing partners
with Nazi gangsterism. 1t means
compromise with terrorism. resigna-
ton to fear AFFECTION before brutal
ity and a way of life based upon
falsehoods, abdication to the lowest
instincts and practices Of human
beings Yet there now remains
scarcely any other alternative for
the Swedes-unless they want to be
martyrs If they had been made of
that kind of stuff. how could they
have waited so long?
In brief outline, this is the tragedy
of the Scandinavian peoples. I have
summarized it without emotion and
with all the restraint that the facts
will permit. The picture of Sweden
is not pleasant one. but I did not
paint it. 1t has been painted by
Swedish actions and words. You can
understand how it happened. You
can pity the Swedes-but that senti-
ment is one of the saddest things
on earth to be forced to feel toward
any people. This is why 7 would
rather not return there for a long
time. It would be too unbeara blv
sad
Nevertheless. if there is great
and overwhelmingly important les
son for Americans anywhere in Eu-
rope today, it is to be found among
the shades of the Vikings and in
the torturing twilight of the Scan
dlnavian countries. Some day they
Will have another dawn-provided
they learn by bitter experience and
provided they come to believe that
dawn is something worth fighting
for. Some day-provided Britain is
not permitted to go down.
Thought They Could Stay Free.
But the Norwegians and the
Swedes are not far away from the
American people. They are verv
much like us in many respects.
They honestly believed they could
remain free, alone and all by them
selves. They liked to think that
their favorable geographic position
had protected them from invasion
for over 100 years, and therefore it
would protect them Just as ade-
quately IN an era when airplanes
have made ponds out of both the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The Scandinavians believed whole
heartedly in material well-being, in
social insurance and sensible labor
laws and public hygiene. They be-
lieved in clean bodies and forgot
about fighting hearts-or made that
item entirely secondary in their
education. They watched Adolf
Hitler's expert propagandists and
foreign agents boring from within
using the Oldest Bolshevik technique
all over Europe and in their own
lands. But they chose to believe, as
one young SWede expressed it to me
that no Swede would ever betray
his country" He might as well have
said that no Swede or no human
being anywhere loves money. Sc
long as there is greed and selfshness
and overWeening ambition, treason
will remain a powerful political
factor throughout the world Hitler
is intelligent. He knows that very
well.
Being Conquered From Within.
Sweden possessed good weapons
and quite strong army for the size
of her population, but she didn't use
her army-and now she is being
conquered from within. You can
not keep realism" or being SEN
sible" or adjustment to the new
era" out of any country. regardless
of its size, with Cotton tanks-ever
a million of them. You cannot bar
treason with 16-inch guns or with
thousands of flying fortresses.
Sweden's frontiers are still tech
nically inviolate, yet she now has
parliamentary government only by
sufferance. One of these days that
too, will disappear, falling to earth
with the empty shell of what was
once Scandinavian freedom. The
SUedes played it safe-or did they
play directly into the hands of the
expert propagandist poisoners OF
Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler?
The Scandinavians had a great
and splendid idea, the idea of free
and progressive democracy. They
showed what liberal parliamentary
government could do for the ma.
terial well-being of their citizens
But they got self-satisfied and some.
what fleshy. They were very human
They forgot that an idea, if it Is
great, must be worth living for anc
worth dying for. They forgot that
until it was too late. That is why
twilight has fallen over Scandinavia
as it may yet fall over America.
| What about the Firms? They lost
a war-and won a victory that will
live forever. There is no twilight ir
Finland. That's all.