19 OCTOBER 1934, Page 2

The Friendship of Scandinavia Mr. Eden's visit to the Scandinavian

countries is in effect an unofficial mission of the most valuable kind. It is indeed inaccurate to speak of it as a mission at all, for the invitation was purely personal, arising out of contacts at Geneva in which all sides took pleasure, and the Scandinavian Ministers are entertaining not the Lord Privy Seal, but simply Mr. Anthony Eden. But that does not mean that the visit will necessarily lead to nothing but some access of personal cordiality. The feeling has been steadily growing in this country that the community of sentiment and outlook between Great Britain on the one side and Sweden, Norway and Denmark on the other ought not merely to be cultivated but given some outward expression. What form that should take is not easy to determine. Perhaps Mr. Eden himself will develop ideas on the subject. On the material side the association of the Scandinavian countries and ouiselves in a low-tariff group on the lines of the Oslo Convention is eminently to be desired. At Geneva and elsewhere British statesmen have constantly been con= scious of an inherent identity of outlook with Scandi- navians like Dr. Nansen and M. Branting and Dr. Munch; Countries which look on the world with the same eves should so far as maybe co-ordinate their policies and share their cultures.