"Make Up Your Mind"

The first Swedish volunteers were killed in Finland last week (see p. 34). Stockholm's largest four newspapers carried full-page advertisements saying: "Now that the world knows what it is to be a Finn, it is your duty to show what it means to be a Swede. Make up your mind now and join the Swedish volunteer Army. With Finland for Sweden!

" Stockholm protested vigorously and daringly to Moscow against Russian air violation of Swedish neutrality (TIME, Jan 22). Sweden was growing tired of pussyfooting when Sweden's discarded Foreign Minister Rickard J. Sandler rose up in the Riksdag to give that usually placid body its biggest political sensation in many a year. In a speech studded with such caustic remarks as "This neutrality is idiocy," he declared: "The meeting last October of four heads of Northern States, with its fascinating display of Nordic solidarity, was only a grandiose and beautiful screen behind which the practical cooperation that was the urgent need of the hour has been quietly torpedoed."

This was a direct challenge to Rickard Sandler's old friend, Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson. The pained expression on the Prime Minister's face suggested that he considered it a stab in the back. Most members of the Riksdag thought it was certainly a bid for all those who want Sweden openly to enter the war against Russia to rally around Rickard Sandler. For the first time he disclosed the reason for his resignation last month, admitting that he wanted to send an expeditionary force of 10,000 men to the Aland Islands, which scheme Prime Minister Hansson vetoed. Cried Interventionist Sandler: "The last word has not yet been said."

Correspondents rushed to Stockholm, scenting a crisis. A Danish correspondent telephoned his paper: "The new European religion of fatalism has seized Sweden. No one doubts that the situation contains serious dangers. This does not mean that the danger is unavoidable . . . but let it come. Sweden has taken her stand and is remaining there."

For three days Stockholm awaited Russia's reply to the Swedish protest. A hard answer might bring war. Nobody realized this more clearly than Joseph Stalin. When the answer came, it was a formal apology.

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