(5 of 5)
Always Anxious. Ingenious, productive, well-organized and still comparatively well-fed, the Swedes believe they can come out of World War II with distinct advantages over other small European nations. Some Swedish newspapers have a fondness for saying: "Swedish industry will win the peace." But the Norwegians, for whom the Swedes have a sincere respect and sympathy, have already shown a leaning toward Britain rather than toward a Pan Nordic bloc in which Sweden would be the largest power. The Swedes admire and respect the fighting qualities of the Finns and have done everything but go to war to keep Finland intact as a buffer against Russia. But the two peoples invariably get on each other's nerves. Business, trade and cultural interests strongly influenced Sweden to the pre-Hitler Germany. Now the Swedes despise the Germans. That leaves only Russia, which the Swedes learned to fear and distrust from their nursery rhymes, and the far-away U.S., where virtually every Swedish family has blood ties.
To TIME last week a correspondent in Stockholm cabled:
"The greatest obstacle [in defining a positive Swedish policy] perhaps is Russophobia. Here Foreign Minister and Career Diplomat Christian Gunther and the Social Democrats find common ground. The latter most fear the Communists. . . . Fear of Russian intentions after the war is a dominant note as an Allied victory seems more certain. . . . The situation would be worse were it not for the presence in Stockholm during the past decade of one of the most remarkable, yet little known, figures in Europe: Alexandra Kollontay, Soviet Minister to Stockholm and first fully accredited woman diplomat in modern times. One of the last of the old Bolsheviks except Stalin, her very existence is miraculous. At the Mössebergh sanatorium she is recovering from the effects of a mild stroke with a magnificent will, determined to live to see the defeat of the Nazis. She is credited by diplomats with being one of the most brilliant practitioners of her craft of her age. Though never publicized, Kollontay had much to do with the Finnish-Russian peace of 1940. With her superb intelligence and with her charm, she helps the Scandinavian countries to deal with the Kremlin enigma."
Always Polite. For the wary Swedes that enigma is only one of many. They are fed up with being lonely neutrals and too smart to do anything about it. But something is going to break loose in Europe before long. Until then the Swedes can keep on saying: "If St. Paul and Satan both appeared simultaneously in Stockholm, they would be treated with equal politeness."
*Raymond Clapper, Nat Barron, Blair Bolles, Marquis Childs, Charles Gratke, Elmer Peterson
*Of more than 600,000 tons of Swedish shipping chartered to the Allies, more than two-thirds have been sunk, with a loss of 800 Swedish lives.
*Named for Désirée Clary, the fabulous "belle of Marseille," who scorned the courtship of a young lieutenant named Napoleon Bonaparte and married Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, whom Napoleon disliked but raised to the rank of a marshal. During a military crisis in 1809-10 Bernadotte was invited to become Sweden's Regent. In 1818 Bernadotte was crowned King and, with Désirée as his consort, founded the present Swedish dynasty.