Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 12

4
LE NORD
the hope that in so doing they may help to lay the foundations
of a happier human life than is possible under present conditions.
The nations of the North wish to enrol themselves in this
pacific army, fighting for the future. Among themselves they
have already built up a small world of mutual understanding
and co-operation, which may be called a microcosm of real inter-
nationalism. In the eyes of a foreign observer they may easily
appear as one single national entity with a common character.
But on closer observation it becomes clear that, though they
number only 17 million people, they form a group of five
distinct nations, deeply aware of mutual dissimilarities which are
the products of geographical and historical causes operating
through many centuries. It may therefore be said that the North
presents to the outside world not one but five national characters.
But this is only one reason the more for treating them to-
gether. For in these countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland,
Norway, and Sweden — the world has an example of five States
which have succeeded in living side by side in peace and amity
for more than a century. There have indeed been disputes and
controversies among them, but never since 1814 have they had
recourse to arms to settle them. And this goes back to a charac-
teristic trait which they have in common: though they are fully
sensible of their rights and as reluctant to give them up as any-
body else, they have also a profound respect for the rights of
others, and they combine with a pronounced individualism a
remarkable sense of reciprocity and social solidarity: to the
Northern peoples law is the highest principle in life.
It is in this respect for law and equity that the real soul of
the North resides. To unite the forces which underlie these ideals
in a common effort to make them of service to the world seems
to us a task well worthy of our endeavours. The object of the
present review is to explain the outlook of the Northern coun-
tries in the sphere of international affairs, and to show in what
manner they try to translate this outlook into action. The reader
will find that these countries present no picture of a complete
community of ideas, institutions, and policy; on the contrary,
he will find a number of divergencies which are the natural re-
sults of different national and individual lines of development.
But underlying all these divergencies he will find a common
desire to realize an ideal: viz. the friendly co-operation between
all the nations in the service of ordered and peaceful progress.