Neutrality in Our Time

The average Swede is 5-ft. 7-in. tall, has blue eyes, sometimes grey. He is a predominantly Nordic type, has flat temples, prominent chin, lean jaws, thin mouth with long upper lip, sloping shoulders, shallow chest, slender waist, relatively short trunk, long legs. The hair texture is prevailingly fine, sometimes medium.

These are the conclusions of the world's leading anthropologists.

A Swede is one of the healthiest and handsomest physical types in the world. Politically and economically, he is mature, practical, cooperative. Psychologically, he is the victim of the national claustrophobia which torments all small European nations. Diplomatically, he intends to remain neutral during World War II, just as he did during World War I, and for more than 100 years before that. But there are limits. . . .

These conclusions came last week from six visiting U.S. newsmen* who have been Rover-boying Sweden since early April as guests of the Swedish Foreign Office. Their cabled stories in a rising Swedish-German crisis coinciding with German worries over Allied invasion plans, defined the point at which the Swedes will go to war.

Trolls in the Forests. Outward appearances last week placed the Swedes closer to a break with Germany than at any other time during the war. Sweden's stubborn insistence lifted a paralyzing four-month ban on overseas shipping through the Skagerrak. Angry notes passed over the sinking of two Swedish submarines Ulven and Draken, in Swedish territorial waters. The insult direct was implicit in the appointment of Baron Johan Beck-Frues as Minister to the exiled government in London of Norway's valiant old King Haakon.

These acts did not mean that the Swedes were deserting the proved practical worth of neutrality for what might now be suicidal warfare. Rather they demonstrated an awareness of the inevitability, of German defeat and a sickening sense of shame over Sweden's passivity while the Nazi trolls run wild in Norway.

In every clean-swept Swedish town and forest hamlet last week there were such demonstrations on Norwegian Independence (Eidsvol) Day as the North has never seen since Norway broke away from Sweden in 1905. Norwegian flags sprouted from Swedish flag poles. The Royal Opera gave a special performance of Peer Gynt. Crowds cheered the John Steinbeck play The Moon Is Down. In the Stockholm Concert Hall, Professor Nils Ahnlund promised that soon "the trolls will be hunted back into the woods." Then he spoke a truth that all Swedes, regardless of any onetime admiration or rationalization of Naziism, now freely admit:

"More than anything else, Norway has taught us Swedes what a profound difference separates us from the so-called European new order."

Troops on the Trains. The American correspondents found that optimists place the pro-Ally sentiment in "Swedes at 95%, and pessimists seldom drop the percentage below 90%. The correspondents also put their finger on the sorest spot in Sweden--the transport of Nazi troops over Swedish railways to Norway.

Thrice weekly Nazi troops avoid the dangers of coastal sea transport by traveling overland through Sweden from Storlien farther north to Riksgraensen. But most galling of all are the two "Reichswehr special" trains, sealed and guarded by Swedish soldiers, packed each day with 1,000 German troops being relieved at Oslo and replaced by fresh troops from Germany. The sight of well-fed Germans hanging out of train windows, yoohooing at Swedish girls, and carrying packages of food, butter and herrings out of starving Oslo is almost too much to stomach. So much public pressure has built up that a secret session of the Riksdag last week was reported to have considered means of ending the traffic. That problem was the key to the diplomacy by which Sweden has survived so far: by judging when to make concessions--willingly to the Allies,* under pressure to the Germans.

Nazis in the Woodpile. The Allies can thank Sweden for the cold-blooded wisdom of refusing to allow British and French troops transit to the Finnish-Russian front in 1940. Had that been allowed, the alignment of Russia on the side of the Allies might never have occurred. Now the Swedes quibble ever absolute neutrality by insisting that troops moving between Norway and Germany carry no arms.

For the moment the formula works, but the day may soon come when Germany may ask for the right to ship fully equipped troops in vastly increased numbers. That day will come if the Allies move into Norway. And that is the point at which Sweden's neutrality will get its final test. If the Swedes refuse and Germany attacks Sweden, then, and only then, will Sweden go to war. The Swedes say that they will refuse further concessions and if the refusal means war, Ja Visst is all right with them. A stubborn neutral is getting mad.

Sweden's Royalty. In Sweden, where the tradition of democracy is more than 500 years old, even the royal houses, like the Swedish forests, labor-employer relations, cooperatives, cheese factories and representative government, must be well run. In this orderly pattern Sweden's Crown Prince and Duke of Skone, Oscar Fredrik Wilhelm Olaf Gustaf Adolf, has found his niche.

An archeologist of distinction, a quiet, intelligent man who gives the impression of having closely scrutinized the world and found that it has to be accepted, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf represents the stolid virtues of his people. At 60 he plays tennis, as does his father, King Gustaf V, who is nearly 85 years old. He is better at golf, which his father disdains as an old man's game. Last week, speaking English with an Oxford accent, he oozed charm and cordiality to the visiting American journalists. His people like him personally better than they like the King.

The Prince has been married twice, first to Margaret, daughter of Britain's Duke of Connaught and granddaughter of Queen Victoria, who bore him four sons and a daughter. The eldest son and heir apparent to the throne is Prince Gustaf Adolf, a mere youngster of 37 with three charming daughters, Margaretha, Birgitta and Desiree.* The daughter, Ingrid, is married to Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark. The second son, Sigvard, married a commoner. The other two sons, Bertil and Carl Johan, are with the Swedish Navy and Army.

The Crown Prince's second wife, whom he married three and a half years after Margaret died in 1920, is the former Lady Louise Mountbatten. elder sister of Britain's Chief of Combined Operations (see p. 98), Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Sweden's Democrats. The same qualities of stability and unruffled efficiency through which the Crown Prince typifies his people are present among the men who direct Sweden's destiny. The bicameral Parliament is dominated by the Social Democrat (Labor) Party. It has a majority in both houses, even under Sweden's proportional-representation system--which, unlike the U.S. winner-take-all system, guarantees minority groups participation in the Government in ratio to their voting strength. In a time of crisis the Government now operates under a coalition of the four major parties. The result has been to spread responsibility and to weld partisan groups into a solid front against the outside world.

Leading the coalition is respectable, onion-bald Per Albin Hansson, Premier and leader of the Social Democrats for more than ten years, onetime gooseherd, onetime militant pacifist. Swedes like him because of his homely habits of bowling and bridge playing, his droll wit, his foxy political maneuvers. But they squirm under the concessions his Government has made to Germany. They have become increasingly restive and more critical of Government policies which, in many cases, the Government cannot, or has not, openly justified.

> The most stinging critic of Nazi "appeasement," the voice of Sweden's conscience and the strongest friend of the Allies in Sweden is Dr. Torgny Segerstedt, editor of Goeteborg's Handels och Sjoefartstidning. Tall, white-thatched Dr. Segerstedt trained for the Lutheran ministry, but was unfrocked 27 years ago on charges of modernism and heresy.

His editorials have made his paper the most frequently banned in Sweden--under a procedure whereby the ban does not usually go into effect until two or three days after the offending issue has been on sale. No quibbler, Dr. Segerstedt has laid about him with a mighty pen, ticking off the Fascist twinges of the Agrarian (land owners) Party, the smugness of the Conservatives, the bleatings of the mass-circulation newspapers of Torsten Kreuger, brother of the late Swedish match king. At Dunkirk, when virtually all Swedes expected the war would be over in two or three weeks, Segerstedt kept his faith. He has spoken his mind to the King, has weathered a Nazi advertising boycott that cut his newspaper's circulation from 50,000 to 30,000. During this period he lived alone, except for his servants, in a rambling old wooden house guarded by two black great Danes, Gard and Gorm. After Gard died mysteriously, an admirer sent him a bulldog named Winston.

Matter-of-fact Olaf Gerhard Thoernell, Commander in Chief of all Swedish armed forces, has 600,000 men at his command. The standard yardstick allows about half of these as combat divisions, but more could be mobilized in a pinch. Sweden has plenty of small arms, Swedish-made Bofors anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns. The army is well trained, but not battle-tested. It lacks sufficient tanks and heavy armaments, is woefully weak in fighter planes, which were ordered from the U.S. in 1940 but later diverted to China. When German military power was at its height on the Continent, Thoernell took a poor view of Sweden's ability to defend herself for any length of time. But with the Swedish navy of light cruisers, destroyers and 50-knot-an-hour motor torpedo boats to harass the enemy, Thoernell could risk a war--provided there was likelihood of Allied success in Norway spilling over quickly to his assistance. Gallup polls have shown repeatedly that the majority of Swedes believe they can avoid war. But they have completely organized against air raids and incendiary bombs. Their Lotta Corps, copied from Finland's modern women's auxiliary military corps, is ready.

Under Minister of Civilian Supply Axel Gjoeres, a former director of Sweden's Cooperative Union, claiming 750,000 consumer families as members, the Swedes run their wartime economy with regulations and ration books. Black markets are controlled through vigorous prosecution. Mounting defense expenditures ($507,500,000 in 1942-43 from 6,400,000 population) are partly met through almost confiscatory taxes in the higher brackets. Rationing covers everything from clothes to tennis balls and all foods except fish (which is too perishable) and fresh vegetables. Laborers doing heavy work and the children of the poor receive extra rations. All rationed items on restaurant menus require coupons.

The forests, backbone of Sweden's economy, now produce fuel, fabrics, food and fodder. Mass expeditions into the countryside have harvested tons of wild roots, berries and herbs. Nettle soup has been found to be tasty. Not so tasty is boar flesh (imported from Hungary) and "Norrlands biff" (socalled "beef of the north," which is about 75% wood pulp). Cigarets are vague combinations of Turkish tobacco and Swedish hay. The traditional smoergasbord has virtually disappeared because bread is the most severely rationed of all foods except meat. Prized Iceland and Norwegian fat herring are no longer available, good cheese is scarce. The greatest loss is that of coffee. Swedes like it hot, strong and often, were the world's greatest per-capita consumers before the war. They now have 300 ersatz types.

Always Anxious. Ingenious, productive, well-organized and still comparatively well-fed, the Swedes believe they can come out of World War II with distinct advantages over other small European nations. Some Swedish newspapers have a fondness for saying: "Swedish industry will win the peace." But the Norwegians, for whom the Swedes have a sincere respect and sympathy, have already shown a leaning toward Britain rather than toward a Pan Nordic bloc in which Sweden would be the largest power. The Swedes admire and respect the fighting qualities of the Finns and have done everything but go to war to keep Finland intact as a buffer against Russia. But the two peoples invariably get on each other's nerves. Business, trade and cultural interests strongly influenced Sweden to the pre-Hitler Germany. Now the Swedes despise the Germans. That leaves only Russia, which the Swedes learned to fear and distrust from their nursery rhymes, and the far-away U.S., where virtually every Swedish family has blood ties.

To TIME last week a correspondent in Stockholm cabled:

"The greatest obstacle [in defining a positive Swedish policy] perhaps is Russophobia. Here Foreign Minister and Career Diplomat Christian Gunther and the Social Democrats find common ground. The latter most fear the Communists. . . . Fear of Russian intentions after the war is a dominant note as an Allied victory seems more certain. . . . The situation would be worse were it not for the presence in Stockholm during the past decade of one of the most remarkable, yet little known, figures in Europe: Alexandra Kollontay, Soviet Minister to Stockholm and first fully accredited woman diplomat in modern times. One of the last of the old Bolsheviks except Stalin, her very existence is miraculous. At the Moessebergh sanatorium she is recovering from the effects of a mild stroke with a magnificent will, determined to live to see the defeat of the Nazis. She is credited by diplomats with being one of the most brilliant practitioners of her craft of her age. Though never publicized, Kollontay had much to do with the Finnish-Russian peace of 1940. With her superb intelligence and with her charm, she helps the Scandinavian countries to deal with the Kremlin enigma."

Always Polite. For the wary Swedes that enigma is only one of many. They are fed up with being lonely neutrals and too smart to do anything about it. But something is going to break loose in Europe before long. Until then the Swedes can keep on saying: "If St. Paul and Satan both appeared simultaneously in Stockholm, they would be treated with equal politeness."

*Raymond Clapper, Nat Barron, Blair Bolles, Marquis Childs, Charles Gratke, Elmer Peterson

*Of more than 600,000 tons of Swedish shipping chartered to the Allies, more than two-thirds have been sunk, with a loss of 800 Swedish lives.

*Named for Desiree Clary, the fabulous "belle of Marseille," who scorned the courtship of a young lieutenant named Napoleon Bonaparte and married Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, whom Napoleon disliked but raised to the rank of a marshal. During a military crisis in 1809-10 Bernadotte was invited to become Sweden's Regent. In 1818 Bernadotte was crowned King and, with Desiree as his consort, founded the present Swedish dynasty.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.