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Scandinavia. In Moscow the official news agency Tass released a ten-day-old exchange of notes between Russia, Sweden and Norway. It brought out clearly how close Scandinavia had been, and still was, to war. Russia demanded that Sweden stop sending volunteers and war materials to Finland. It added that the Swedish press "carried on an impermissible campaign" against the Soviet Union which could be explained only "if Sweden were in a state of war with the U.S.S.R. or was preparing for war." To Norway, Russia was even more threatening, declaring that "actions of the Norwegian authorities . . . may lead to undesirable complications and disturb the normal relations between the Soviet Union and Norway."
Sweden's and Norway's replies, said Tass last week, were "unsatisfactory." Norway replied that Russia's complaints were based on inaccurate information. Sweden was tougher: "The Swedish people cherish ardent sympathy for Finland. . . . In the opinion of the Swedish Government neither its position as regards the press nor its actions in any other demand provides the Soviet Union with a pretext for accusations against Sweden."
Last week the two Kings of Sweden and Norway spoke up boldly. Surrounded by stalwart Life Guards cloaked in the gaudy uniforms Charles XII designed for them over two centuries ago, King Gustaf V opened the Swedish Riksdag by declaring: "Finland's involvement in armed conflict touches the Swedish people. . . . Sweden feels an obligation to give Finland's brave people every material humanitarian help which is possible while heeding its own position." Finance Minister Ernst Johannes Wigforss indicated what form that heeding would take. He presented the first 2,000,000,000-kroner (about $476,600,000) budget in Sweden's history. Of this sum more than half was to be for defense.
Opening Norway's Storting. King Haakon VII was less solicitous for Finland but not a jot less concerned with defense. "I hope," he said, "the new year will bring peace for all human beings, especially for our brother country in the east. . . . Training for the Army will follow the same directive as during past years, but there will be some enlargement. Naval defenses will be changed and enlarged."
The Balkans. All last week the Rumanian Ministry of Propaganda in Bucharest issued official denials to nosy correspond ents. It swore that King Carol II was not out of town. Actually, His Majesty speeded down the Chaussée Kisseleff from the Palace to the Royal Railway Station one morning along a route on which one newsman estimated there were 176 picked secret policemen, one every eight yards. The police were told that the King was going hunting with His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mihai on the royal estate near Timisoara.