SWEDEN WILL STAY NEUTRAL, PRIME MINISTER DECLARES
Fischer, Alfred Joachim
Exclusive Interview With Tage Erlander: Sweden Will Stay Neutral, Prime Minister Declares By ALFRED JOACHIM FISCHER New Leader Roving Correspondent STOCKHOLM. SWEDEN will maintain her...
...This will save the high cost of laying direct cables from Norway to Denmark...
...If anything should happen in Finland, it would deeply stir public opinion in Sweden...
...From 1938 to 1944 he was undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs, and until 1945 president of the Demographical Commission, whose reform proposals become law automatically...
...Erlander says he doubts if "we can expect much more...
...I am afraid," he says, "there may be difficulties for our trade partners...
...For example, a power station now being built in Norway wijl supply power to Sweden, and another station in Sweden will work for Denmark...
...But tho waves are beating relentlessly on" all sides...
...Sweden is building more houses, in relation to population, than any other, country in the world...
...Recently a new bill enabled municipalities to sequester ground needed for building purposes...
...it did not cause any special dispute, and is even supported by a considerable number of Liberals [Sweden's right-wing opposition party...
...How long Sweden will be able to maintain her traditional neutrality only time will tell...
...SWEDEN'S FOREIGN POLICY, in its day-to-day elaboration, is baaed to a large degree on her trade relations...
...Although Sweden's neutrality is, according to Erlander, "a policy nearest to its own interests," concern for Finland is high...
...Erlander emphasized that "the Swedish people takes a great interest in everything that happens in Finland...
...Erlander can cite many other examples of the "old, proved methods" of Scandinavian cooperaiton...
...We are neutral and isolated," the 49-year old Social Democratic leader said...
...Sweden's neutrality, moreover, is not the same as that of Switzerland...
...Under his direction, Swedish Social Democracy has continued its world-renowned "middle way," Full employment and housing are the government's primary domestic concerns...
...Politically neutral, economically flourishing, Sweden's Social Democracy seems like an island in the hot sea of cold war...
...Although Sweden gets very little direct Marshall aid, Erlander is wary about the expected end of the plan in 1952...
...The Prime Minister revealed that 50,000 men are being conscripted every year, and that the Swedish Army was capable of attaining a maximum strength of 400,000 crack troops...
...It would be impossible for the Communists to organize any type of political wildcat strike in Sweden...
...If this should end in 1952, it will complicate matters both for Norway and ourselves...
...Consequently, we understand their decision to choose America and Britian as their partners...
...in the upper house, 85 of the 233 seats...
...On October 1, 1948, he became Prime Minister...
...We believed a neutral Scandinavia would have a chance of keeping 'out of a future European war...
...Sweden," says Erlander, "is perhaps the only country in Europe where there has never been a Communist in the Central Executive of our trade unions...
...Although socialization is of course an admitted aim of Erlander's party, it has been soft-pedaled in recent years...
...But Sweden is importing coal from Poland, and hopes that trade relations will continue with Russia after the five-year period is up...
...In the lower house, it got 112 out of the 230 seats...
...As a result of Sweden's democratic pursuit of social welfare...
...The aim and purpose of our military policy," Erlander said, "is to prepare every healthy citizen for the event of war...
...A year ago," Erlander remarks, "Sweden wanted to conclude such a defense pact, even though we knew that Norway and Denmark were much weaker militarily than we were...
...Thus we were able to pursue the idea of a defense bloc with Norway and Denmark, while such a policy would have been impossible under the Swiss concept of neutrality...
...I hope, however, that Marshall aid will continue, in one form or another, for the most important reconstruction projects...
...Thus Erlander says "Germany was our biggest trade partner before the war, and one could hardly imagine Europe without a strong, democratic Germany, in which we, too, are interested...
...Parky aspirations must recede intofthe background...
...But in 1949 the Commercial Bank was founded as a new state enterprise...
...Economic collaboration with Norway and Denmark has continued full-scale even though those two nations joined the Atlantic Pact, and thus put an end to negotiations for a separate Scandinavian defense pact...
...Moreover, we have joined the United Nations, while Switzerland has not...
...Nevertheless, we knew that we could not offer our Norwegian and Danish neighbors the same security as a bigger partner could...
...It stands to reason that the members of the trained Reserve outnumber the small regular Army by far...
...TAGE ERLANDER was first elected as a Social Democratic member of parliament in 1933...
...The Swedish CP has three seats in the Upper House, eight in the Lower...
...At the present moment, Sweden's commercial ties' are strongest with Great Britain...
...This makes a strong defense doubly necessary...
...We are surrounded by small neighbors, Switzerland mainly by big ones...
...But, industrially, the Communists are impotent...
...Communists amount to very little...
...This understanding has helped the Scandinavian countries continue their long-time cultural and economic cooperation...
...SWEDEN will maintain her neutrality but will increase her military budget from 800 million to 900 million crowns, Prime Minister Tage Erlander told me in an exclusive interview...
...Of far greater importance" says Erlander, "is (cooperation to increase our industrial output and our exports...
...In the 1948 election, Erlander's Social Democratic Party got 46 percent of the votes...
...During this difficult period, any active challenge must be avoided...
...The 15-year billion crown credit granted to the Soviet Union in 1946 has so far brought orders of only four hundred million crowns...
...In view of our success in the recent local eletcions," says Erlander, "we have reason to be optimistic...
...This position may be improved by the new elections to the upper house this year...
...Norway received considerable MarshalL^aid, and we have built a large part of Norwegian shipping and have been paid in Marshall dollars...
Vol. 33 • April 1950 • No. 16
