Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Blaðsíða 250

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LE NORD
his political party, the Danish
“Left”, something in a class by it-
self, quite different from the Lib-
eral parties of any other European
country.
However, modern technology
and the division of labour, even
within the individual communities,
began to make themselves felt in
Denmark too and caused displace-
ments of the population and an eco-
nomic grouping which in its turn
formed the basis of a new distri-
bution of political power. On ac-
count of the uniformity of its in-
terests, its common culture, and the
homogeneity of its habits of life,
the farmer class still possessed a
greater ability to act collectively,
which again means acting with
greater weight, than any other social
class. But the wedge driven into the
Danish farmer class by the for-
mation of the Radical Left in 1905
and the policy subsequently pursued
by the Radical party, have weaken-
ed its political influence, with ef-
fects which will be felt far into the
future. As yet, however, the Danish
farmer class still has a distinct econ-
omic preponderance on account of
its export trade, though even this
preponderance is no longer undis-
puted. Nevertheless, no matter what
the future may have in store, one
thing is certain: the rise of the Da-
nish farmers as a class began with
the agricultural reforms at the close
of the eighteenth century, especially
with the abolition of the “Stavns-
baand” on June 20th, 1788. That
day is the birthday of the Danish
farming class; there was every rea-
son why the 150th anniversary of
that day should be celebrated, and
there was every reason why the
entire country should share in the
celebration.
Otto Himmelstrup.
The Meeting of Foreign Ministers
in Copenhagen July 23rd—24th,
1938.
The most important political
event of this summer in this country
was the meeting of foreign ministers
which took place on July 23rd and
24th, and in which the foreign min-
isters of Belgium, Luxemburg, and
Holland took part in addition to
those of the four Northern coun-
tries. While earlier similar meetings
have only been attended by repre-
sentatives of the Northern coun-
tries, this meeting had thus a more
comprehensive character, beeing in
fact a conference of the signatories
to the Oslo Convention of 1930.
On former occasions, conferences
and discussions between representa-
tives of the countries in question
have indeed frequently taken place
at Geneva during the sittings of the
Assembly of the League of Nations,
but this is the first time that such a
meeting has been held independent-
ly of the League sittings and as a
continuation and extension of the