Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Blaðsíða 57

INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS AND HISTORY
47
had taken the initiative in an ambitious plan for Scandinavian
scientific collaboration. With the support of representatives from
Finland, Norway and Sweden, it organized a group of prominent
Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish historians,
economists and experts on international law for the purpose of
producing a comprehensive work on the neutrality theories and
policies of the northern countries since the end of the lyth. Cen-
tury. Financial support for the scheme had been guaranteed by
the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rask-0rsted Foundation, Chri-
stian Michelsens Institut and the Finnish and Swedish States.
Everything was ready for the signing of the contracts when the
German invasion of Denmark and Norway simultaneously ex-
ploded the inherited conception of Scandinavian neutrality and
for the time being, at any rate, scotched the plan for describing
that neutrality.
Conclusion
In the preceding pages an attempt has been made to survey
the activities of the Danish Institute of Economics and History
during the first seventeen years of its existence. I hope that it
may appear from what has been told that valuable work has
been done in each of the fields in which it has been active. And
although for the last five years the conditions imposed by the
war and the occupation have hampered this work somewhat, it
has happily proved to have been less than at first feared. There
has not, for instance, been the slightest direct interference with
the work of the Institute, though, of course, it has been subject
to the same censorship and restrictions as all other Danish pub-
lishers.
It is nevertheless natural that the Institute and all those who
appreciate its work look forward with longing to the day when
once more the frontiers are opened and books, newspapers,
periodicals and, last but not least, scholars of all nations can pass
freely from country to country. In the new age that we hope
for and in which truthful knowledge of the world around us
will be of greater importance to the masses of the people than
ever before, the Institute of Economics and History has rich pos-
sibilities for playing an important part and, well aware of this,
it is even now preparing for its mission.