THE COMMUNISTS IN NORWAY
SIR,—Few would have the temerity to question Professor Brogan's authority when he speaks of France or the U.S.A. When, however, he wanders to Norway, his remarks are more open to challenge. When he implies that the Norwegian voter is not the possessor of " a good deal of sense," and that our electorate is " better off " in that respect, I would not follow him into the realm of " odious " comparision, but would venture most emphatically to question whether there is any country in the world where political sense and an intelligent grasp of political pro- blems is more widely diffused than in Norway. This might be more disputable—in the minds of some people—if it were true that Com- munism in Norway had the strength and influence that Professor Brogan suggests. But in fact his " large and powerful Communist Party " secured no more than eleven parliamentary seats in the 1945 election, though Communism at that date was able to profit from the military prestige gained by the Soviet Union during the war. In the previous elections (1936) Communists shared with Quisling's Nasjonal Samling the dubious distinction of complete failure to return a single candidate. As against eleven Communist members of the Storting, the Conservatives now have 26 and the Liberals 20, while the orthodox Labour Party have 76. Communists therefore stand a bad fourth on the list, and their political influence would not seem to be impressive. In these circum- stances, I prefer the estimate made by a Norwegian friend—a judge of the Supreme Court—who recently wrote to me: "There is hardly any country in Europe—with the possible exception of England—where the Communists are as weak as they are in Norway."—Yours faithfully,
Donnington Priory, Newbury. G. M. GATHORNE-HARDY.
Previous page
