Neutral Allies or Immoral Pariahs? Scandinavian Neutrality, International Law and Great Power Politics in World War Ⅰ

摘要

At the end of June 1918 a lowly ranked official with the British legation in Stockholm, vice consul Robert Marshall, composed a five-page memorandum seemingly on the "Public Opinion in Sweden with Regard to the War". Already the opening sentences betray the author's intention and psychological state: The Swede is by nature psychologically fitted to take the same point of view on things in general as the German. There is a very common impression in England that the Swede is the most honest and straight-forward person on earth. This is not so. I have been resident in this country for over eight years, most of the time under circumstances which have given me a very good opportunity to form a reliable opinion with regard to the average Swede and I have found that the Swedes as a whole have no regard whatever for the truth as such. They will tell a most bare-faced lie on the slightest provocation if they think that they will not be found out. In business, one should always insist on a written contract. I have had a large experience of cases which would in England be called sharp practices or dishonesty. In Sweden they are accounted "good business".