there was behind it the armed strength with which to enforce it
would the neutrality of Sweden be respected. A move of the most profound
significance--the first in our endeavors to create in Scandinavia a
neutral "centre" and to gird ourselves with a greater strength to make
our peaceful intentions effective--was made on Aug. 8 of last year, when
the Foreign Ministers of Sweden and Norway appeared in the
representative assemblies of both peoples and delivered identically
worded explanatory communications in which was embodied a statement to
the effect that the Swedish and Norwegian Governments had agreed to
maintain their neutrality throughout the war at any cost, and that the
two Governments had exchanged mutually binding and satisfactory
assurances with a view to preventing any situation growing out of the
state of war in Europe from precipitating either country into acts of
hostility directed against the other.

In the meantime, neutral commerce and shipping during the months that
followed were exposed to most serious infringements by the warring
powers, such as the closing of ports by mines; limitations in the rights
of neutral shipping to the use of the sea (mare libre) and of other
established routes of maritime trade; arbitrary broadening in the
definition of what shall constitute contraband of war, &c. As an
instance it may be stated that England for a time treated magnetic iron
ore as contraband of war and that Germany still persists in so
regarding certain classes of manufactured wood. In both these instances
Swedish exports have suffered severely. On initiative taken by the
Swedish Government in the middle of last November the Governments of
Sweden, Denmark, and Norway lodged identically worded protests with the
envoys of certain of the powers engaged in the war against measures
taken by them which threatened serious disturbance to neutral traffic.

[Illustration: SIR PERCY SCOTT

British Admiral, Who Asserted Before the War Began That the Submarine
Had Sounded the Deathknell of the Dreadnought

_(Photo from Rogers)_]

[Illustration: GENERAL LOUIS BOTHA

The Famous Boer Leader, Premier of the Union of South Africa, Now
Commanding the British South African Forces

_(Photo from Paul Thompson)_]

One further step--of the utmost importance through what it accomplished
toward establishing firmly the position of the neutral States in the
north--was the meeting between the Kings of Sweden, Norway, and Denma