"Darkening Up Here'

Trim little countries are Norway, Sweden, Denmark. And trimmed in a horrifyingly perfect balance are the alternate disasters that await them no matter which side they turn toward in World War II--or, very possibly, even if they just keep on looking dead ahead toward neutrality.

Again last week Scandinavia was the most critical spot on the map as its 13,000,000 citizens continued to be put on the spot by all sides of the warring nations. Almost daily the casualties of Scandinavian shipping mounted until the score stood at 92 merchantmen sunk, 753 seamen killed--all by the Nazis. In the East the Red Army moved ever nearer to Swedish soil and Finland's calls for aid caused serious internal unrest. In the West the Allied Powers actively questioned Scandinavia's interpretation of neutrality. "It is certainly darkening up here," observed the Stockholm Tidningen.

As if the Altmark fracas in Norwegian waters were not enough excitement, added to it last week was the incident of Pajala, a Swedish town of 3,000 six miles from the Finnish border, 100 miles North of the Gulf of Bothnia. One morning seven bombers flew over Pajala, dropping 134 explosive and incendiary bombs. Six buildings were burned, telephone lines were cut, 43 big bomb holes were made in Pajala's streets. Miraculously, no one was killed, only two slightly wounded.

All Sweden had no doubt that the bombers were Red Army planes, although in Stockholm the Government was ready to believe that the Russians had simply made a mistake. In Moscow Swedish Minister Vilhelm Assarsson hurried to protest to Foreign Commissar Viacheslav M. Molotov, fully expecting to get an apology similar to that offered when the Russians early this year mistakenly bombed the Swedish island of Kallaks. Instead, the People's Commissar flatly denied that Red aviators were responsible.

That denial exasperated the Swedes, and all the more so when an investigating commission examined some duds and found them of Russian make. Swedish "activists" immediately redoubled their demands that the country jump into the war on Finland's side regardless of consequences. All over Scandinavia young men rushed in greater numbers than ever to Finnish volunteer recruiting stations. It was a question of touch-&-go whether popular demand would not force the Swedish Government into openly helping Finland.

An ever surer sign that Scandinavia was in the middle of a first-class war of nerves was the flight of capital from Sweden. In two days 20,000,000 kroner ($4,760,000) left for safer refuge. To check this loss Premier Per Albin Hansson called the Riksdag into week-end session, pushed through laws forbidding the export of banknotes, checks, drafts, coins, bullion. No one could doubt any longer that Sweden, by helping volunteers to get to Finland, was "actively non-intervening" in the Finnish War more or less as Germany, Italy and Russia "non-intervened" in the Spanish Civil War.

In a desperate (and perhaps last) attempt to save Northern Europe's neutrality Foreign Ministers Dr. Peter Munch of Denmark, Halvdan Koht of Norway, and Christian Guenther of Sweden met at Copenhagen's Christiansborg Palace. The Foreign Minister of Finland, which is perforce no longer neutral, did not attend. As they met the Nazi press lectured them on how to be a good neutral: 1) follow the U. S. example and stop shipping to Britain; 2) quit the League of Nations; 3) stick to the recent neutrality proclamation of Sweden's Gustaf V (TIME, Feb. 26).

After a four-and-a-half hour meeting Their Excellencies agreed to urge mediation of the Finnish-Russian War by somebody, decided to "encourage" peace negotiations between the Allies and Germany. Moreover, in the future, they said, their three countries will:

> Act as a unit in dealing with belligerents.

> Object together to such "violations of international law" as the Altmark affair.

> Demand compensation for war losses.

> Insist on maintaining Scandinavian shipping on the high seas.

Although the Ministers' communique said they would put concerted pressure on belligerents to respect their rights, what is the use of pressure without teeth?

Indication of what other Scandinavians believed they were in for could be found elsewhere than in Copenhagen last week. At the Bofors armament works in Southern Sweden men worked day-&-night shifts building big guns, anti-aircraft weapons, bombs. And outside Stockholm at Aker, Swedish home of gunpowder, poison gas and gas masks, never before had there been such desperate activity.

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