A LETTER FROM STOCKHOLM. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Something of a " boom " seems likely to come to Sweden, for there has been a great increase in orders booked for the coming season, especially with regard to wood goods, wood pulp, paper, pigs and pig products, machinery and electric machines. Such key industries as iron and saw mills arc, of course, still in a precarious condition, in spite of the British coal strike, which provided them with a temporary market for some of their old stocks. The general confidence as regards the industrial position has never been higher.
The general tone of confidence was also reflected in the estimate of State revenues of the Budget, which showed a total of 745 million kronen as compared with 709 million for last year.
Most of the large factories in Stockholm are moving their premises to outside the town—in order to provide the Swedish capital with a new residential quarter of eight-storey blocks of flats. The large porcelain factory of Rorstrand and the Atlas Diesel Motor Company are among the latest that have done so. I also hear that the motor-car tax is being increased in order to enable the Government to rebuild the roads and make them more suitable for motor traffic. This is only one of the many ways in which the Stockholm municipality is trying to make their capital the most up-to-date city in the world. I doubt if any other municipality has ever expended more lavish sums in embellishing a city than Stockholm has done.
Winter sports are now in full swing in Dalecarlia and the North of Sweden, and ice-yachting competitions have already been held in the Stockholm Archipelago. According to present arrangements the Victoria Hockey Club is coming over this month from Canada to play one or two ice hockey matches against the pick of Sweden's hockey players. As the visitors are the best hockey team in their own country these matches should be well worth seeing.
Christmas and the New Year were very gay this year, and Stockholm has gone Charleston mad with such vengeance that the municipalities of one or two of its suburbs have taken alarm, and prohibited it within their areas. I understand, however, that the interdict is not very strictly enforced.
The big event in the theatrical world was the performance last month of " Peer Gynt" by the combined companies of the Opera and Royal Dramatic Companies. This is the first time the two companies have ever played in co-operation, and people are wondering why it was never done before.—I am,
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