MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
y WAS unable last week to contribute a Marginal Comment since I I was stuck in Stockholm with no aeroplane to bring me back.
I am glad of this*, since on re-reading the article which I had pre- pared but failed to send to London, it seems to me that I was too bemused and dazzled by the lights and friendships of Sweden to convey my impressions either in their right proportions or their correct order. After four years of total darkness it is confusing
to find a city draped with necklaces of arc-lights, to watch a million windows blazing uncurtained in the night, or to be able from across the street to see into the bright recesses of some art-dealer's shop, and to recognise a Boudin hanging on the wall, and a statue of Mirabeau against a piece of tapestry. Neutrality in such circum- stances does not suggest a legal status ; it represents a continuance of those amenities and delights which ended .for us September, 1939, and which we supposed, in ignorance, had passed for ever from Europe. I can understand that Sweden's neighbours—the Danes, the Finns and the Norwegians, having suffered terribly from the war, should regard with envious anger the comforts which neutrality conveys. The spiritual arrogance engendered by the endurance of great tribulation is apt to render one contemptuous of those who have escaped. The Swedes are not regarded by all their neighbours with that warmth' of gratitude which they expect ; and even we in England, who have in comparison with occupied Europe experienced but slight vexations, are apt to misjudge Sweden, to think of her only in terms of iron ore and German troop trains, and to forget the skill, the humanity and the essential dignity that she has displayed.
* * * * The Swedes are a proud people: immense orgeuil justifii. They did not strike me as being conceited. They are proud of their dramatic past ; they are proud of their present social system ; they look forward with pride to an orderly and prosperous future. They can claim with justice that in this difficult modern world they have managed to combine all that was most venerable in their ancient institutions with all that is most progressive in the realm of social advancement. They can claim that in their country there are no extremes of wealth or poverty, and that the poisons of class jealousy do not clog their veins. They are proud of the physical beauty of their men and women ; of the roundest reddest babies that any country can boast ; proud of their wonderful education and their interesting architecture ; proud of their schools and hospitals, of their palaces and villas, of their music and gymnastics. And they are proud—with a defiant and sometimes a slightly wounded pride—of the fact that in the Second German War they have been able, in spite of almost insuperable difficulties, to main- tain their independence, their self-respect, and their high standard of living. Such pride is admirable, since it is based, not upon fiction, but upon facts. And behind it all there is a sense of responsibility ; a sense of opportunity ; a sense that their sanity, their decent dealing, is proving, and will prove increasingly, of great value to a stricken world. The ideal of gentlemanly conduct is very operative in Sweden today. They ask for recognition and gratitude from nobody ; they feel responsible only to their own conscience ; and that conscience is vivid, realistic and humane.
* * * * I was fortunate in the fact that my arrival in Sweden coincided with the exchange of British and German prisoners in the harbour of Gothenburg. Here was an overt demonstration of Swedish efficiency, here was an open and proclaimed act of helpfulness, which compensated for the fact that so many of their previous acts of humanity had been either unnoticed or unavowed. The Swedes are naturally disappointed that their fine contribution to the relief of starving women and children in Greece has attracted but slight attention either in Great Britain or in the United States. They are hurt that the Norwegians sho,ild not be more grateful * Other emotions prevailed elsewhere.—En., The Spectator. for the unstinted assistance which Sweden has given to the men, women and children who have escaped across the border. They are aware that they will obtain but little credit from the fact that within the last few weeks they have been able to receive more than eight thousand refugees from Denmark. In a country of only six millions such an invasion of refugees constitutes no easy social problem ; yet how different, both in spirit and in practice, has the attitude of the Swedish Government been in such matters from the glum selfishness of our own Home Office. This absence of gratitude, or even of ordinary human recognition, has thrown the Swedes back upon themselves. " We do not," they say, " even care for recognition from an insane world. We are responsible to nothing except to ma own ideals and traditions. We shall continue, within the limits of our strength, to remain neutral and to act impartially, with wisdom, generosity and intelligence, to all belligerents alike. It may be that when the war is over Europe will recognise the part which we have played. Sweden meanwhile is responsible to herself alone."
* * * * I do not wish to suggest that this mood of slightly injured pride precludes the Swedish people from feeling ardent sympathies for those fellow Europeans who have suffered in the war. They are acutely sensitive to the fact that, compared with the sufferings of their immediate neighbours, their own ordeals have been slight indeed. They look for an early peace with a longing no less than ours, and with an optimism which fills the English visitor with astonishment. To us it seems that many weary months must pass, many new and hidden anxieties must be surmounted, before we can organise the overwhelming strength which alone can give us total victory. The Swedes do not share this gloomy anticipation. Many of them seem to have derived from their visits to Germany the impression that the German people have lost faith in their leaders. It is said, moreover, that whereas the old civil servants in Germany retain their reputation for high integrity, the corrup- tion among the Nazi officials and the S.S. is such as to discredit the whole Hitlerite regime. And if one questions their optimism they smile with inner assurance. " You do not know," they say, " the condition of Germany today. We do." And in truth the stories that one hears are strange indeed. * * * *
The town of Helsingborg looks out across the sound to where the towers of Elsinore glisten in the autumn sun. Four ancient Junkers patrol the channel slowly, passing up and down is search of refugees and automatic mines. In the cemetery above the town are the graves of seven British airmen, their names and the words "Died for his country " painted upon neat white crosses. And a mile or so beyond lies the sanatorium of Ramlosa, which was being used as a clearing-station for Danish refugees. In the gallery which ran along the main building several Jewish families were waiting to have their names and occupations entered upon the card-index. As we entered the gallery the policemen sprang to attention, and a spasm flashed into the faces of the refugees. I raised my voice and said something aloud in English. The refugees ,relaxed immediately and grinned slyly at each other, knowing that each for a horrible second had supposed that the Gestapo had come. Never until that moment had I realised the confidence, the relief, which a few words of the English language can inspire. And when, one by one, the refugees had registered their names, they passed out with their pathetic bundles in to the little park in which the other buildings were situated. Upon their faces was an expres- sion of numbed bewilderment ; they smiled very vaguely at the brisk Swedish nurses who took them gaily in charge. Over there, across the water, glimmered the shores of Denmark, the most recent outpost of the New Order. I watched the refugees being distri- buted among the little houses in which they would be washed and clothed and fed. I felt glad that we were fighting this war. I felt glad that Sweden wasn't.
Previous page
