KNOCKING THE SWEDES
SIR,—Mr. Fennell's article in your paper is typical of the irresponsible handling of Sweden in foreign newspapers we have to put up with here in Sweden. A great number of foreigners are permitted to stay and work and enjoy all the benefits of the Swedish Welfare State, but after a while they go away and write unfavourable articles about us.
Mr. Fennell's interpretation of realpolitik is very unpleasant if not a little vicious. As we are a Germanic nation, friendship with Germany before the Second World War was quite natural, and when our attitude changed during the war it was not at all because of American and Russian victories but because we began to understand (from the many refugees who found safety here in Sweden) what Nazism really meant. We are often criticised for what happened during the war—with respect to Norway and so forth; but a little country like Sweden served the world best by neutrality in that situation. England has never had to put up with half as much criticism for Mr. Chamberlain's realpolitik before 1939.
Mr. Fennell's remarks about 'hysterical German- ophobia' are not at all true, for here in Sweden we have some of the most active aeo-Nazi organisations outside of America. They have their meetings occasionally but we--humourless Swedes—only laugh at them. Mr. Fennell seems unhappy about our drinking but what he describes is a minority— respectable Swedes drink in moderation, not in doorways, and if responsible people go home by taxi rather than risking other people's lives by driving their own cars it does not seem to be something to criticise.
Mr. Fennell's remarks on our dislike of violence are typical subjective interpretations of a more rational attitude or behaviour. Surely the whole of civilisation is built on the desire to eliminate in- sufficiently motivated violence in action and speech. Here in Sweden we experience no rancour but believe that the number-ticket system is more objective than the elbow system. Most Swedes are retiring people anyway. After eleven o'clock at night there is hardly a lighted window remaining in any of the fine, modern flats round Stockholm— unless Ingemar Johansson is boxing in America when it may be excusable—though, by the way, boxing soon will not be permitted here in Sweden.
Sweden seems to have become a target for criticism all over the world and one often wonders what we have done to deserve it. Apparently it is not only our brother Scandinavians who envy us our high living standard and enjoy finding fault with us.
RIME SVENSSON
Stockholm
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