From A Scandinavian League, The Spectator, 19 December 1914:
THE meeting of the three Scandinavian Kings at Malmo is an event of more than momentary importance. According to the official statement, this meeting was arranged in order that the three Kings might confer upon the neutrality of their respective countries, especially in connexion with the interference with trade which results from the war. That such a Conference should take place on such a subject is eminently reasonable, and will certainly be welcomed. in this country, as it appears to have been throughout Scandinavia. As regards the interference with trade, of which all the three Scandinavian countries are reasonably complaining, our own view as a belligerent necessarily differs somewhat from their view as neutrals. That is inevitable, and is by no means a new fact. In every war the trading interests of neutrals are in conflict with the military interests of belligerents, and, no treaties or conventions can altogether get rid of this essential conflict of interest. Until this war broke out, the general assumption of Englishmen was that in any coming war Great Britain would probably be neutral, and this assumption considerably affected the attitude taken up by the British Government in regard to various proposals made and adopted at the Hague Conference of 1907. So little did our Government anticipate the necessity of having to take an active part in a great European war that they consented to many provisions with regard to maritime commerce in time of war which tend very greatly to hamper our activities and to diminish our power of bringing naval pressure to bear upon our enemies. Nevertheless, few Englishmen would care to see Great Britain going back at the present moment upon the principles she accepted at the Hague Conference. If the Conventions then agreed to are to be revised, and there is considerable ground for their revision, it must be done deliberately in time of peace, and not solely in our own interest in time of war.
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