Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIX. Sweden in 1915
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Swedes, because in truth a few hundred tyres or a few
hundred hams smuggled into Germany would not have
materially strengthened her military position!
However, not even in this case did the displeasure of
Swedish public opinion go so far as to evoke dangerous
tension between Swreden and the Entente countries;
and the reason for this lay in the solidarity which became
daily greater between the three Scandinavian countries,
with regard to everything relative to current events and
the economic situation.
At the end of the preceding chapter, I mentioned
M. Wallenberg’s master-stroke in arranging the first
meeting between the three Scandinavian sovereigns at
Malmö. Since then conferences between Swedish,
Norwegian and Danish statesmen took place whenever
circumstances or special questions demanded them. A
new solidarity was becoming established—a solidarity
which was apparent above all in economic and
commercial spheres. The three Scandinavian countries
strove to supplement mutually their resources and their
needs. They made reciprocal concessions, and with
regard to the blockade, the interests of the three
countries collectively replaced their individual interests.
Moreover, as Denmark and Norway displayed far less
impatience with regard to the measures taken by the
Entente Powers than Sweden did, this conciliatory spirit
ended by influencing Sweden’s conduct.
Thus the dangers which threatened the maintenance
of Swedish neutrality in consequence of the success of
German arms and the miseries of the blockade were
averted or at least mitigated. A third source of danger
remained, that of the Aland Islands.
The question of the Aland Archipelago, which had
remained dormant since the definite conquest of Finland
by the Russians in 1809, rose up at the sound of the guns
in the war of 1853-55. The Anglo-French squadrons
took then the fortress of Bomarsund, situated on one of
the islands of the Archipelago; the united Kingdom of
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