OCR Text |
Show mm news SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT HAPPENINGS HAP-PENINGS IN FAR OFF NORTHLAND. ITEMS FROM THE OLD HOME Resume of the Most Important Events in Sweden, Norway and Denmark Of Interest to the Scandinavians In America. DENMARK. Tbeodor Jorgensen, a native of Statene, Langeland, died Intestate in America, leaving an estate of $100,000. lie was supposed to have no heirs. But when his death became known there suddenly sprang up a score of persons who claim the estate. At least some of them can substantiate their relationship, rela-tionship, and the people of Langeland are glad because the $100,000 will come to their island. The Kvissel pool's high school has 'been sold to a : !;o Intends to modify the phi! , ': ,-hool by add-' ing courses in U.: : :id housekeeping. housekeep-ing. The Teachers' association has asked the, government to take steps to prevent pre-vent the children from using tobacco. An internal disease is killing off the hares on the Aebel island. NORWAY. A Norwegian steamer, the Thorum, In coast traffic, chartered by the Norwegian Nor-wegian government itself with cargo of hay to relieve the fodder famine in the northern part of the country, was stopped by a German U-boat inside in-side the three-mile line, that means in Norwegian waters; the Norwepian flag was lowered and the German flag was run up, as the German U-boat chief declared the steamer a German prize because of lack of special clearing clear-ing papers. A Norwegian torpedo boat arrived, the Norwegian captain declared de-clared that as the steamer was in Norwegian Nor-wegian waters, she was not liable to be seized by German U-boats, ordered the Norwegian flag flown again, and the German lowered. After some argument, ar-gument, however, he yielded to the Oornian view and allowed the steamer to be taken as prize to a German port and the Norwegian flag for the second time displaced by the German. This happened May 16 and, upon an interpolation in-terpolation In the storting regarding this affair Minister of Foreign Affairs Ihlen answered that the government's protest in Berlin and the assurance of the steamer being a government chartered char-tered boat had only met unwillingness to straighten out the affair and give a satisfactory excuse. On the contrary, con-trary, there was no prospect of the ship being released In the near future, as the case would be tried before a prize court. More humiliating was the announcement that the Norwegian crew now would be brought before German Ger-man court-martial because they, according ac-cording to orders from a Norwegian naval officer In Norwegian waters, had hoisted the Norwegian flag. International fish story. A member of the crew of the Berlin, a converted German cruiser which has been interned in-terned at Hommelvik, near Trondhjem, almost since the beginning of the war, has been in the habit of netting flounders flound-ers in the bay. The other morning he found his net cut to pieces and a part of It gone. Members of the crew of the British steamer Kovno, which was at anchor in the harbor at the time, were suspected, and the police boarded the ship to get light on the matter. Yes, three men had been out fishing, and their gear got caught In a net, which they pulled up and cut to pieces In order to get rid of It. The Germans tried to make out that the work was n case of malice prepense ; but the authorities au-thorities came to the conclusion that the English, who were young men, who knew next to nothing about the mysteries mys-teries of fishing, simply and honestly knew no better. Norway has grown rich during the war. But In spite of the golden flood there has been no such suffering In the country since 1S12, when the crops failed to such an extent that people actually had to systemize the making of bread out of pine bark. Food and fuel are getting more scarce from day to day, and still worse times are In sight on account of the American embargo em-bargo on the staple necessaries of life. A fire in Trondhjem spread to different differ-ent points among the vast storehouses. Puring the fire a Norwegian steamer blew up. Supplies for the allies reported re-ported worth millions have been destroyed. de-stroyed. Norway has more money at present than ever before, hut Is lacking in food, according to Knut Bachke and Anders Borresen, bankers of Christl-anla, Christl-anla, Norway, on their way to the Pacific Pa-cific coast. Mr. Bachke said that under an agreement Norway Is supplying supply-ing the British government with So per cent of Its surplus fish catch, and the remaining 15 per cent to Germany. He said that if the United States refuses re-fuses to sell food to Norway because of the percentage of fish sold to Germany, Ger-many, Norwegians will not be able to teed themselves. FINLAND. The "Ireland of Russia" flung Its final word of defiance at the Russian provisional government and promptly translated it into action. The Finnish landldag passed a bill declaring Finland's Fin-land's absolute independence from Kussia Kus-sia as a separate autonomous state. In taking this action the separatists openly open-ly admitted that they were taking advantage ad-vantage of Russia's plight. They argued ar-gued that Kussia, confronted as she is wilh terrific difficulties at home and at the front, will not be nble to try to repress Finland's dissaffection by force of arms. With disaster on the march in Galicia and the German big guns booming on the Riga-Dvinsk front, any military steps to enforce Russia's authority on Finland seems to be out of the question. On the other hand, to leave the Finnish secession unchallenged would be inviting the Ukraine and many other provinces to follow Finland's lead. The Finnish landtdag, having by a vote of 105 to 27, declared the necessity neces-sity of immediately voting the autonomy auton-omy bill, adopted it forthwith in full by a vote of 136 to 55. The landtdag rejected by a vote of 104 to 86 au amendment by Deputy Cullas proposing propos-ing that the bill should be submitted for the approbation of the Russian provisional pro-visional government. SWEDEN. The position of the conservatives in Sweden, as in other countries, is precarious. pre-carious. The autocracy of Russia crumbled crum-bled down under the first serious attack at-tack of the revolutionary forces and this result has given a tremendous encouragement en-couragement to the liberal elements of Sweden during their fight for political equality for men and women. The whole aspect of Swedish politics has changed during the last months. The great masses are not any longer satisfied satis-fied with empty words from the government gov-ernment and the riksdag. They want action, and quick action, as the only means of preventing them from taking tak-ing matters into their own hands. The riots, which took place outside of the palace to the riksdag are an illustration illustra-tion of the new spirit of action among the Swedish working class. Policemen and soldiers in hundreds had to be used against the masses, trying to force a passage to the building of the Swedish parliament, and a great number num-ber of people were injured. Such occurrence oc-currence would have been impossible In Sweden only a few months ago. In his powerful newspaper, the Social Demokraten, Hjalmilr Branting Interprets Inter-prets the demonstrations as a warning warn-ing to the king and the ruling class not to oppose the will of the people after the result of the elections has been made clear. Up to the present time the iron will of M. Branting has succeeded suc-ceeded in keeping the great majority of social democrats from putting a program of drastic action into practice. prac-tice. But the limit of their endurance has now been nearly reached, and the bulk of Swedish socialists are said to be ready to back up their demands with action if the introduction in -Sweden of a government more favorable to the people is postponed very much longer. In the London prize court the attorney attor-ney general asked for the condemnation condemna-tion of some 7,800 tons of dried fruits from New York and San Francisco, seized on the steamers San Francisco and Pacific, consigned to the Swedish victualing commission, a government department, but alleged to be intended intend-ed for export to Germany. Before the war, said the attorney general, the annual an-nual requirements of Sweden in these commodities was 6,500 tons, but In 1915 the imports had totaled 11,556 tons, while for the first half of 1916 6,500 tons had been imported. Besides Be-sides this, he added, Sweden had on hand before the war 11,000 tons of these fruits, yet in the summer of 1916 no dried fruits remained In Sweden. . Three Germans, one of them a captain cap-tain of marines, have just been expelled ex-pelled from Sweden for espionage, which unquestionably resulted in the sinking of many ships. Their seat of operations was Gothenburg, and their reports appear to have been made through Copenhagen. One posed ax a merchant, the second as a teacher of languages, and the third, who was the leader, as a wholesale merchant. P. T. Waldenstrom, the famous leader of the Mission Covenant, died July 14 in Stockholm. For half n century cen-tury he was very prominent In the religious re-ligious life of Sweden, and It may be added that no matter what this man said or did, he was always interesting. interest-ing. The body of King Carl XII was exhumed ex-humed July IS in order that It might he established whether the bullet that ended his life 199 years ago came from an assassin or from the Norwegian fortress of Frediiksten, which he was investing. Since June 1 It has been Impossible to be served with any kind of liquor in Sweden without an accompanying order for a warm meal costing about 40 cents. Even then no more than about five fluid ounces of liquor may ho served in all, and not more than a third of this may consist of strong brandy. One result of the new order unquestionably has been a great waste of food for countless meals are ordered or-dered and either left untouched or else slightly toyed with and mixed with cigar and cigarette .".she:; by careless care-less people. |