swedish panorama - university of hawaii · 2013-03-01 · a report from stockholm telld of life in...

A report from Stockholm telld of life in olleof lite W01'ld', Jew remaining r1eulral cotmtriu

SWEDISH PANORAMA

EVEN in neutral countries, the har­vest of 1943 was a national affair.In the Malar Valley around Stock­

holm there was almost a superabundanceof volunteer harvest workers, studentsfrom the university and the high schoolsand other helpers in their colored blouses.After that, mushrooms were picked inthe forests. Public prizes were offeredfor this, as had been done before forpicking blueberries. And when finallythe cranberries had been picked in themoming mist of the autumn days, theSwedish countrysirle, plowed or lffiplowed,was stripped of its fruits as never before.

What had once been a game for Sun­day excursionists is now by means ofposters impressed IIpon the people astheir patriotio duty. Collect, hoard, en­dure, gain time, these standard slogansof neutral policy have had a growingeffect in the course of the years. As aresult, supplies have been increased andthe nerves of the population strengthened.This con(,'entmtion on domestic problemshas done much to make the contrast be­tween Sweden's quiet peac.e and thenoise of raging b(~ttles across the bordermore endurable. The detail work forstabilizing the food situation is the bestmeans of making one forget that thegreat decisions on the battlefields in theEast and West will also affect Sweden;and the way things are, there are manywho seek this forgetfulness. While work­ing hard, it is easier to imagine that thefate of Sweden might go on unaffectedby tha.t of the rest of Europe.

"ERSATZ" IN SWEDEN

The Swedes have indeed succeeded inmore or less maintaining a peace-timeoutward appearance of everyday life. AStockholm exhibition, "Through theCrisis to Peace," provided some revealinginsight int-o this. It showed the progress

made in this country in the manufactureof substitutes. 'rhe great and littletriumphs of adaptability, the substitutesfound only for the period of transitionand isolation, were very interest,ing. Onecould admire automobile tires of a springybeechwood construction which are to re­place rubber tires. An epoch-makingtechnical progress WR8 displayed in theform of a new Swedish light-weight con­crete, a building material of so litt,leweight that it floats on water like wood.And what is there that cannot be producedfrom wood or wood pulp of which Swedenhas more than enough? Not only rayonand staple wool, but now even artificialleather for shoe soles, as a result ofwhich points could be added to the shoe­ration cards that had to be introducedlast spring because there was a stoppagein the supply of hides from South America.This exhibition was anot,her indication ofwhere the Swedes like to direct theirthoughts to avoid the great riddles of thefuture in the field of politics.

Or they turn to the idyllic. Was there'not almost every Sunday last summersome town or other in northern Swedenor on the west coast that celebrated thethree-hundredth anniversary of its found­ing \\ith speeches a.nd parades in whichthe whole nation participated, as if a.sunny market square with flags and afestive crowd could radiat,e trust andconfidence for another thirty generations?And when a little communit,y in Smallandcelebrated the hundredth birthday of thegreat singer Christina Nilsson, who rosefrom a barefooted peasant child to themost famous operatic star of her time,did not all the large Stockholm papersbring four-column reports on her career,which, although brilliant enough, canhardly be of much concern to us nowa­days? How, at the ll.ge of fift~'Cn, shecarved her first violin herself, and how

THE x.."{tb CENTURY

later, a the Spani h Counte s de Ca aMiran?a, she sat at table with princesand kmgs, and yet remained the same allthrough LeI'. seventy ~cars of life, readinga hapte~ m the. ~lble ev~r'y morningand evenmg? ThIS IJ tho kmd of thingth people want to know again and hearabout. n w, e pecially now.

CANDL'l"AYJAX ILL SWN

Against this baokground it is worthwhile looking at the strangely w"trealpolitical vision of the future being spread8mOll r the Swedish people by the veryactiv l\SSociation "North"; the hope fora fed ration of the fOllr northern nations.The I andinavian fedemtion is the onlyidoa of a renewed, unchanged postwarorder wh.ich has hitherto found any echoamong the Swedish population. How­ever, 'weden and Finlll.nd, Denmark andNorway, have suffered entir Iy differentfat . in this war; th four nations arehomog nous neither as I' gards race norlanguage: their variou economies competewi h mther tha.n complcment each otherin th export markets. No one can telltoday whether they wiJJ ,vel' be able toform a Nor hern European bloc, w"tles8one 01' 1Il0re of the grcat powers under­took to guarantee this Lloc. Where theeye. of the Swede are not turned towarddom tic problems, ho i. :ecretly on thelookout for this unsolfish gr at power.It would prove an intere ting ta k tostudy the numerous ministerial speechesmade on this subject during the last fewyear's in Sweden, Finland, and evenDenmark, and to pick out all those ref­erence, in which the p08sibiHty is leftopen that a 'foreign power," either a~inglo great nation or a grou p regardingIts If ru a ort of international policeman,migh~ have to be the mo t importantsleepmg partner of a Scandinavian bloc.In other words, tho Scandinavian idea.would slip through the fingers of theNordic nations, would disRolve into some­th~n entirely different, omething they11f'lther meant nor d ired, a soon as itbccam an apparent reality.

Hut ,to return ~ the outward appear­ance 01 everyday life in Stockholm: it is

not entirely un banged. The assistantat the corner bnrbersh p who has workedthere for several year', is suddenly gonoon day. Th~n the laundry tells youthat the washlllg CtUUlOt be ret-umed Ii

quickly any more, as they have onlvt~lree employees now compared to thenrne they had lllltil recently. Your soncom back from 8 hool and ys thatt~e gymnastics teacher has not appearedsm e the beginning of the new termand that nobody knows when he willreturn.

PREr.UtEDN ESS

Where are they aU, the barber, thelaundry workers, the teacher? Calledup. \0\ hen you ride in a tram out ofthe city, you sco horses from the near-bybalTacks trotting Oll the exercise groundto. ~our right, willie small group arcdrillrng to your left, At the barbed wirprotecting a pie 'e of land from intruderstands the plump figure of a middle-aged

man in the brownish-green uniform ofthe wedish Army. The sun reRe tF.from the ~teel helme of the guard,company which mll,rehcs to the l{oylllPalace every day at noon. Tho helmetsare not quite as flat itS the English onCRbut, like the English, the Swedish soldiersdo not wear the strap under the chin butunder the mouth. And while the ba.nd?'t the head of the guards company playsIts marches, the sale girls take a quicklook through the door of the shop anrlperbaps wonder for a moment why somany girls must suffer from lonelinessthese days.

There is not much sense in wTacking'One's brain as to why the Governmentand the military leaders of wed nshould want to maintain so large a numberof troops at the present moment. ThoCommander in Chicf of the Swedish forcesannounced to the public last autumn­and tho public must be satisfied withthis-that military preparedness mU8t bemaintained on a large cale. The in­ternational situation, he said, continuedto include the po ibiHty of unexpectedchanges.

'WEDl H PA...'WHA2IIA 425

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Incidentally, formulation of that kindar by no mean new or surpru-in cr •

Th y reappear at int rval and, mol' over,they repre ent only . orne of th rea. nsfor th· measures tukon. The wedesa.r not only conccrneu with afeguardingtheir border. Ilnd protecting th ir nell­tnllity against all e\'entualitie : the' al 0

wish to keep uI in their military trainingwit h the developm IIts of modern wnrfareIlml to increase he fighting pow r oftheir Army by con. tant trainiJ1g. It is

nly l~ few year' a,go. actually sin thebeginning of th pl' - nt war, thut theSwedish Government et itself th ta kof u thorough reorganization of the,"welli h military sy. tem. The 'wedishG v rnm nt ha not had much tim atits disp sal to d thi.. for the ven inthouL ide world more or Ie: pr'; ri b dth I,d. _-'lth lI,h th nu of theprogram has no yet been reached-m: iproved by the Five Year Plun whichWlLH COlllll1elWed lust Hummer wit h anunusually hifrh exp('lllliture for I'carma­l11('nt plirpos(':-llIlIeh hll: already h(' naehi '\·('d. HIllI t.h(' (;O\'('rnmenl feci;; quite8ll.ti. fi d with the l' ,'ult.· of thi,' work.

By the end of ummel' 1043 pm ticallyall men of military fig could be r gludedas fully traultd. According to figurespubli~h 'd in th newFpapers. of allJllell hum betw en the year 1906nnd I!I:!:! and dlle fur mj)itarv .I'rvi e!JI per cnt of thoso liable f'or Armyscn'ic" ha.\"c Itll'l';uly b'('n trained. Intit CH~e of the N!t~'~r, the figllre iB telpN cent" in thp C'Il" of coaHtlll urtillery!l3 per '('nL Add to tbi that no le.:sthan 77 per cen of t b old l' m n (burnbefor I \JOG) ha I already been cull d up,i.e. had roceiv I military training. Thusth 'w Jish milit,lIry pI' paredn :H. withr garu to training. compare. favorably tothat of a belliger nt cuuntry.

Jl'DICATJYE PAMPHLET

The l<pltere f active military I'lerviceis n t the onl) on' in which the idea of

rearmument i being realized. Ev('n inneutral 'weden, total war \\'ith it,H de­mands upon the 'ivilian populati In isbein' expuunded to the people, By ex­plainin the consequences of n. militlLrycon,fiict the w di, h (:o\'ernnwnt, i;; at­t<lmpting to a hi y th coneet p!'y ·ho­logical attitude toward fin emC'l'~cn('y

eyen n mong th hroad mIl8S('S. La·t,ummel'. for instnnee, the mornillg postbrollght a. little pamphlet to cvery houl<ontitJ u lI"hen War Brl'UJ.:s Oul. At til'. I,

on mi ht have b en inclined to helieveit to b 'om irr .'pon. ibl attempt atg tting people into It panic. But, no: thepampld t bears the I{oyal signature, ipubliKhed by the (:0 ernment In[orml:L­ti n ,'en'ice, and calls it. elf a "guide forth. itiz n' of th eoull ry in ('us ofwar." The introdllet inn :tart~: "~I{)d rnwar is Ilot only II t rial of I' ren"t h b ­tween military fore 'I". It affcct, ever '.t,h ing rLIHI everyone. The n,t! llck ma.ylLrri\'o wit.hout pre\'ious wl.Lrning lindc me by land. b !'len., or frum the air."H 'nce ~v r~' ,'w~d must from the b gin­ning 11Il\'c a ·Iear id'l\ uf his position andhi!'l tllHks.

Four and a. hllif yen.rs of Will' hrwe}Jl1flsell. I\,nd ::)werl('n has managl.:d to

tllY out" and hopes to remain nputrnl toth end. But to r('lll< Ul neutral onemust, above all, lJ n utml: ont' IlIl1!ot byword and thou vh I, k, p the pcn IlIlullI ofpuuli opinion balanccd and not l<tdllllitit 0 th' la\\' of sylIlpn,lhy and IIntipa,thy,Th iH prepll.redncs . for nell tmlity ill thoughtirl jllrlt as important liS the military pre­Jlllredn: to watch o\'er olle'!' ou t ward11 ut.mlity. Sw dell ..:lIould not for etth is cve'n t hough the rcor l1twiuLt ion ofth ILrmeu forces hm: led to notabl<' sue-

, ;;e6. alth ugh :{Car hlights pi'l'l'e t,hedarkn gg of th night ·ky. although agreat "convoy batll .. 1m' b n foughtill ni ht man 'uvers of the J IV IT thecon,t of BI king', nnd although newt.a.nks and armored CUI'S parade in frontof th gates of 'tockholm.-K. A. "J

StockllOlm.