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262
SWEDEN IN 1914 [chap. xv.
cemented again, then it would only be necessary to tell
the Swedes to keep quiet: moreover, they would
understand this themselves.
Now, to prepare the Swedes for the eventual
taking-up of arms against Russia it was imperative to dazzle
their eyes with a great hope, and also to showT them a
great danger.
The hope was the recovery of Finland.
In the centre of one of the most beautiful squares in
Stockholm, a large Charles XII. in bronze, treading with
enormous boots on a very mean pedestal, points out to
the passers-by with a fine movement of arm and sword
the direction of the rising sun—that of oppressed
Finland. Every good squire and every Swedish
" intellectual" is impressed by this gesture, which
evokes in him memories of heroism and patriotic
troubles. But intelligent and well-informed Swedes—
and these are not lacking—know perfectly well that for
some time Finland has not been at all what she was
under the Swedish regime and up till the middle of the
nineteenth century; that the Finns, an obstinate,
taciturn, vindictive and spiteful race, but gifted and
eager for work withal, are beginning to form a nation
that has nothing in common with Sweden nor with the
traditions of the Vasas; that even at Helsingfors, the
" sons of the sun," the descendants of the Germanic
Azes, have often to bow before the prominent cheekbones
and snub nose of some Finns, distant descendants of
those Altaic races who throughout centuries had kept
up an implacable conflict with the Aryans. That
Finland might one day become independent, that the
Swedes readily believe; but that she might again
become an integral part of the kingdom of Sweden—
that could only be contemplated seriously by shallow
or ignorant minds. Hence the "great hope " was but a
feeble bait. So that the "great fear " had all the more
influence.
It was gradually suggested to the Swedes that
Russia had not yet finished her offensive movement
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