Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 62

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LE NORD
After the war, in 1919, special “Scandinavian delegations”
as they were called, were appointed in Sweden, Denmark, and
Norway to investigate “the possibilities of securing future co-
operation between the countries in economic matters and espe-
cially in regard to commercial policy”, but in spite of a number
of investigations and reports, the activities of the delegations
gradually fell off and ceased after a year or two. In Geneva the
representatives of the Northern Countries have maintained con-
tact with each other also in economic questions, and it was on the
initiative of Norway that the Oslo Convention of 1930 came
into being. Owing to its structure and its inclusion of Belgium-
Luxemburg and Holland, the latter cannot, however, be regarded
as a form of Northern co-operation in the strict sense of the term.
Particularly during the last few years, energetic and persistent
efforts to develop and organize Northern economic co-operation
have been made in various quarters. For almost twenty years
there have been associations called “Norden” in all the Northern
Countries, the object of which is to intensify the sense of unify
between the nations of the North and to encourage co-operation
among them. On various occasions economic questions have been
discussed by these associations, and when Mr. Sandler, the Swe-
dish Minister for Foreign Affairs, had emphasised the importance
of economic co-operation in the North in a speech delivered in the
winter of 1934, the associations resolved at a joint meeting, in
the autumn of the same year, to suggest to their governments
that official delegations should be appointed to encourage such
co-operation.
Soon afterwards, in September 1934, the subject was taken
up at a meeting of the Northern Ministers for Foreign Affairs
in Stockholm, and as a result the so-called “Naboland Boards”
or delegations for economic co-operation were appointed towards
the end of that year in all the Northern Countries. The delega-
tions in each country received more or less similar instructions.
According to these, the duties of the delegations are to encourage
commercial and economic co-operation between the countries of
the North, taking into consideration, on one hand, the possibility
of extending mutual trade between the Northern Countries, and
on the other, the investigation of opportunities for achieving closer
co-operation between the countries of the North with a view to
safeguarding their general commercial interests. The duties of
the delegations also include the discussion of questions concerning