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Show TRANSLATION .. .. .. . _ o _ By HJALMAR BRANTING MIN personliga hyllning at Belgien betyder sa l1tet. Darfor Vlll Jag beratta om mitt folk. 0 .. _ Sverge var forutbestamt att se med tyska 6gon pa varldskrisen. Tyskarna iiro vara stamfréinder, dit gér vara forbindelsers téitaste nat, fran Tyskland har svensk odling starkast pfwerkats. Vara ledande . klasser beundrafl tygk ordning och plikttrohet, de underordnades disc1p11n och landets valdiga materiella uppsving. Och var arbetarrorelse véixte som tysk planta, innan den slog helt rot och formades om efter den svenska Jorden ; nar §Verges arbetare fir 1909 ka'mpade sin storstrejks valdlga fOrsvarskamp, gavofl oss tyska broder ett maktigt stod. Och naturligt lystrade Sverge t1ll den forsta tyska forkunnelsen: tsardomet fir fredst'oraren, Europas fara-v1 svenskar ha ju sett p51 nara hill Finlands besvurna sjiilvstyrelse forlntas, medan de ryska milit'a‘rforléiggningarna déir okats och vfirt eget land utsatts for néir‘ . . ' génget ryskt spioneri. Men sf: kom folkrfittsbrottet mot Belgien. For 055, som sfiilva Vllja t1ll det yttersta bevara var neutralitet, kandes det som en stot mot eget hjéirta. Det vinde hela stamningen hos vart folks djupa leder, och det var som om t.o.m. i den mest tvsksinnade dclen av vfar press stfimmorna forlorade sin sjalvs'a'kra klang. Och ju hérdare framfarten blev, ju mer genomté'lget tog karaktér av en hfirjande erovrares invasion, desto starkare vaxte svenska hjiirtans sympati for det lilla tappra folk, som holl ut for réitt och frlhet oforskrackt, utan att réikna krossande overmakts tal. Mahanda vann tysk strategi, trots att den missraknat sig pa motstandet, nagon fordel av inbrottct over folkr‘attsskyddat land. Men dct finns makter i varlden, som pa langden betyda mer an strategi. M5 kortsynt sméklokhet rakna ut : Belgien borde ha stannat vid ett forsta motstand, tillrackligt att markera dess neutralitet. Nej, mitt i forodelse och fortvivlan méste det svaras : nu forst, nfir Belgiens unga nation visat att den tagit fadernas offermod hclt i arv, nu forst it (less frihet, dess sakra plats bland folkens br'odrakedja oryggligt tryggad for tider som komma‘. Att Belgiens hela folk, ej minst dess socialistiska arbetarklass, satt in $3 oéindligt mycket mer an lama ord-protester, det har gjort dcss sak helig for alla min och kvinnor viirlden runt, vilka annu akta ratt och frihet. Dirfor: hell Belgien! Och min varmaste onskan som svensk méste bli denna : skulle en dag, mot vad vi hoppas och till trots for den folkfred \‘1 soka forbereda, vart eget neutrala land hotas av Valdet, m5 vi da veta att endraktigt fo'lja Belgiens lysande foredome, segerbetryggande mitt i skenbar undergéng ! " Hallre do ‘an bli slav," Sager ett friesiskt 0rd. Dct fir samma anda som i var svenska biskop Thomas' sang frfin 15 : de seklet : Frihet a'r det ba'sta ting, som scikas kan all tra'rlden kring, ty frihet folier a‘ra. My personal homage to Belgium means so little. Therefore I will speak about my people. Sweden was predestined to look upon the worldcrisis with German eyes. The Germans are our kinsmcn. To them goes the closest network of our communications, the strongest influence on Swedish culture has come from Germany. Our upper classes admire the German orderliness, sense of duty, the discipline of the subordinate classes among the people and the enormous material growth of the country. Our labour movement grew as a German plant before it took root in and was reshaped for the Swedish soil. And when the Swedish workers fought their great defensive battle in the general strike of [909, their German brethren gave them a powerful support. Naturally enough Sweden was ready to listen to the first German proclamation ." Tsarism is the peace disturber, the danger of all Europe." We Swedes had had the opportunity to see how the confirmed self-goeernment of Finland had been destroyed, we had seen how troop concentrations in that country had been increased, while our own had been subjected to a system of intrusive Russian espionage. But then came the crime against International Law, the 7'iolation of Belgium's neutrality. For us, we who intend to defend to the very utmost our neutrality, it was like a thrust directed against our own heart. It changed altogether the feelings among the broad ranks of our nation. E'cen in the most Germanophile part of the newspaper press it seemed as if the mice: had lost their note of self-confidence. The more ruthless the methods became, the more the " march through " assumed the character of a ravaging con~ queror‘s invasion, the stronger grew the sympathies in Swedish hearts for the little brave nation that undaunted held on for right and liberty without counting the crushing superiority of numbers. Perhaps German strategy, in spite of it having miscal- culated the resistance, won some advantage through the invasion of an internationally protected country. But there are powers in the world which after all count more than strategy. Short.sighted wiseocres may calculate that Belgium ought to have yielded after a first resistance sufiicient to mark her neutrality. No, in the midst of destruction and despair, it must be said : Only now, when the young Belgian nation has shown how thoroughly she has taken over from her ancestors the heritage of courage and power of sacrifice, only now is her liberty, her place in the chain of brother-nations irrevocably secured for all time. That the whole Belgian nation, her socialistic working class not least, has staked so much more than feeble protests of words has made her cause sacred to all those men and women in the whole world, who still value justice and liberty. Therefore: Hail to Belgium 1 And my sincerest wish as a Swede must be this : if in spite of the hope we cherish and the peace between the nations we are trying to prepare, the day should arrive, when our own neutral country is threatened by t'iola- tion, may we then unanimously follow the magnificent example of Belgium, securing victory in the midst of apparent ruin. "Rather die than become a slave," says a Frisian proverb, It is the same spirit as in the song from the fifteenth century by our Swedish Bishop Thomas: Liberty is the best of all things that can be sought in the whole world, Because with liberty comes honour. By ERMETE NOVELLI " Godz' l barbaric." Poiche se' 51‘ grande Che per Mare e per term batti l'ali E per l'Inferno il tuo name 31' spande ! UNA nube nera, densa, minacciosa, incombe sulla terra gittando sovr' essa rovinosa pioggia di sangue e grandine di fuoco ! . . . Guerra ! . . . Quanti morti . . . quanti lutti . . . quante lagrime d'insanabile dolore! . . . Guerra . . . Guerra! . . . In queste angosciose tenebre nelle quali brancoliamo attoniti e smarriti, un punto luminoso rimane, a speranza di un domani di Sole ; il sublime Martirio del Belgio, unico forse nella storia dei popoli ! Martirio che insegna ora e insegnera ne' secoli futuri come un popolo conscio della forza dei proprii diritti possa cambiare uno sconfitto nella P it‘s gra nde gonosa 1 ' V'ttor'a! . . . c WMflg/fié 1 1 I55 |