The Daily Mail, June 8, 1905 page 4
One after another the States which only twenty years ago Mr. Gladstone used to cite as showing the admirable working of Home Rule are proving by their history the extreme danger of that adventitious remedy for Irish discontent, and justifying the sound common sense of the British people in peremptorily rejecting it. The troubles between Austria and Hungary are familiar to those who follow closely Continental affairs, and no definitive solution of them has yet been discovered. It is now the turn of Norway to serve as an example of the peril which must attach to a loose union between two kingdoms.
The Storthing, or Norwegian Parliament, yesterday by an unconstitutional assertion of its power deposed its reigning Sovereign. By the Union of 1814 Norway and Sweden were to be governed by one and the same King. The two peoples are closely related by race and language. They both speak the same tongue for all practical purposes, though the spelling of some worlds differs. Their institutions are much the same, yet he Norwegians have not been able to live in peace with Swedes. From the early days of the Union they have strive to weaken the intimacy of their relations with the sister State, and have fastened upon the conduce of foreign affairs and the appointment of consular representatives as the grounds of the quarrel. From 1814 to recent years Sweden conducted foreign policy and named the consults for both Powers. It cannot be said that she used her privilege unfairly or that she entangled Norway in difficult and dangerous enterprise. ON the contrary, she proceeded with great prudence and moderation, and lived in peace and amity with all States. Of the paid consuls in the joint service a year ago seventeen were Norwegians, and only ten Swedes. Of the Ministers accredited to foreign Courts a fair proportion were always Norwegians. If there was a grievance, it was thus one of microscopic dimension, and not to be easily understood by the British mind, which favours moderation and compromise.
In the course of the present year the Norwegian Storthing passed a Bill creating a Norwegian Consular service, on the excuse that Norwegian shipping interests were ill-looked after by the Swedes. The King vetoed the Bill, and when the Ministry offered to resign, declined to accept their resignations. The Ministry have now placed their power in the hands of the Storthing, and that body has violently severed the connection with Sweden, and deposed a member of the last House reigning in Europe which owes its throne to Napoleon. It has asked, indeed, that a younger son of the Swedish Royal Family may be nominated to succeed King Oscar; but it is by no means certain his Majesty will accede to the wishes of his mutinous subjects. He has the feelings of Sweden to consider, and the consent of Sweden is requisite before Norway can abrogate the Union.
Feeling in Sweden is bitter against the conduct of the Norwegians. The Swedes - in the closest possible contact with Russia - understand the dangers of Scandinavia better than the Norwegian people. They have always before their eyes the lamentable condition of Finland - a State Swedish by race and sympathy, crushed beneath the iron heal of Russian despotism, denied its constitutional privileges, robbed of the freedom which it possessed under the late Czar, and dragooned into a sullen submission to a civilization which it abhors. From the first the Swedes have held to the principle that a single Government in Scandinavia must be stronger than two separate and disunited Governments. But, they have preached to deaf ears and preached in vain.
To no purpose did Dr. Sven Hedin warn the Norwegians that their action in forcing on a separation would establish a new Korea in the north of Europe, and open the door in the future to Russian aggression. The Norwegians have presumed upon the terrible catastrophe which has overtaken the Russian Navy in the Far East, and imagine themselves secure for all time. They are making what is probably the greatest mistake in their chequered history, and forgetting the old and honoured saying that "Union is strength." It yet remains to be seen how Sweden will accept their action. That she will offer forcible resistance to the secession of Norway is hardly probably, though the possibility cannot be wholly ruled out of account. But she will certainly refuse Norway that offensive and defensive alliance of which the Norwegians profess to be in quest, as all the risks of it must fall upon Sweden, while all the advantages accrue to Norway. For England and the Continent the quarrel is not without danger. There is a new Balkan question to-day in the north of Europe, with the coming into existence of new, small, and weak State, which cannot protect itself, and which must depend upon the sufferance of the strong.
Oppdatert 24.08.04
Wigo H. Skråmm, Fetsund - Nils
Steinar Våge, Lillestrøm