Norway is the western portion of the Scandinavian peninsula, and has an area of about 125,000 square miles. Its northern coast is washed by the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean, and against the northeast is Lapland, while Sweden bounds it on the east and the famed North Sea on the south and the broad Atlantic on the west.

The rugged country is separated from Sweden by the Kiolen, or the Great Scandinavian chain of mountains, and in the hills and mountains are found the wonderful Norway spruce and fir trees familiar in commerce. Its fisheries and shipbuilding industry are also of great importance in the world of business.

DEMOCRACY OF NORWAY,

The constitution of Norway is one of the most Democratic in all Europe. Although a monarchy, its executive and legislative power is vested in the parliament, called the Storthing, and the King has merely a nominal command over the army and navy, with power to appoint the governor-general only. The latter has a limited right to veto acts of the parliament. Hereditary nobility was abolished in 1821.

Under the treaty of Vienna in 1814, and following the defeat of Napoleon, it was arranged that Denmark must give up Norway, and the two countries were united under the Swedish Crown. Norway demanded a separate consular service in 1905, and the Storthing declared the union with Sweden at an end. Prince Charles of Denmark then became King, reigning as Haakon VII.

The country has a population of 2,340,000, and her full military force mobilized for war is only 110,000 men.

Sweden, Norway's next-door neighbor on the Scandinavian peninsula, in contradistinction to the latter, is a constitutional monarchy, with extraordinary powers vested in the King, who is assisted in the administration of affairs by a council of ministers. The Diet, or legislature, consists of two chambers, or estates, both elected by the people.

Like Norway, the country is very rugged. Lapland and Finland are at the northeast, and on the east is the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic, and on the south the Baltic, the Sound and the Cattegat. It joins Norway on the west. Its area is 172,875 square miles, and its coast line is more than 1400 miles long.

Sweden, while it does not have a first-class navy, possesses a score of armored vessels of small displacement, besides torpedo boats, destroyers, etc., and has an army of 40,000 at peace strength. The country is particularly rich in minerals, and some of the finest iron ore in the world comes from its mines. Nickel, lead, cobalt, alum and sulphur are also produced in large quantities; while it gives to the world, too, immense quantities of lumber and larger quantities of hemp, flax and hops.

The reigning monarch is King Gustavus V, who succeeded his father, Oscar II, who died in 1907. The population of the country is about 5,000,000.

Of these neutrals, both Holland and Switzerland did a great deal for the suffering Belgians when Germany pounded through the country of King Albert, sending money for the relief of the sufferers and offering refugees shelter.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR.

FROM BOSNIA TO FLANDERS-MARNE THE TURNING POINT OF THE CONFLICT-THE CONQUESTS OF SERVIA AND RUMANIA THE FALL OF BAGDAD-RUSSIA'S WOMEN SOLDIERS-AMERICA'S CONSCRIPTS.

HE end of August, 1917, found twenty-one nations in a

TH

state of war and five in what might be termed a condition of modified neutrality, with nearly 40,000,000 summoned to arms and 5,000,000 killed in bitter warfare.

This was the fiery reflection of the shots which caused the death of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, of Austria, in the quiet little town of Serajevo, the capital of Bosnia, in June, 1914. And so, with their backs to the wall, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria faced Servia, Russia, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Montenegro, Japan, Italy, Portugal, Rumania, the United States, Cuba, Brazil, Greece, Siam, China and little Liberia, while Guatemala, Panama, Haiti, Uruguay and Bolivia stood by in a position of neutrality, but for the most part indicating a willingness to help the Allies.

And in those elapsed three years after the Bosnia tragedy an Emperor of Austria had died; a Czar had stepped from his throne, and a King had been compelled to toss aside his crown. Prime Ministers and Ministers of War in all of the principal countries, who held the confidence of their peoples when the war started, were no more.

Cabinets had been dissolved and new ones set up, statesmen brushed aside and commanders of the war forces compelled to step out that others might carry on the battles.

Though it was Austria's ultimatum to Servia which precipitated the world-wide struggle, it was Germany that took the first step and crossed the French frontier with its armed forces. After Servia refused to accede to all of the demands

of Austria-Hungary and war had formally been declared by the latter country, Russia began a partial mobilization of her armed forces, since she had given warning that she would extend protection to Servia. Germany retaliated by calling together her warring forces and declaring war on the Czar; France came to Russia's aid. Then when Belgium refused to permit the German army to pass through the country and Germany disregarded international treaties and invaded the territory, Great Britain declared war u n the Kaiser, and Montenegro aligned itself with the Allies.

GERMANY'S DESIGNS ON PARIS.

Germany's action and subsequent events prove that the war lords had planned to capture Paris by a swift attack from the north, before France could gather her forces to resist and before Russia was prepared to assist. Belgium, however, proved a stumbling block. The natives, battling like demons for the protection of their homes and honor, held the Teuton hordes at Liege for several weeks, or until the famous fortifications there were reduced, and then the terrible machine of the Germans swept forward until the soldiers were within fifteen miles of the French capital.

It was here, within a few hours' march of Paris, that the French and Allied troops showed their real metal. General Joffre met the German hordes beside the River Marne and with his troops began the battle which was to guarantee the security of the French capital and result in the routing of the army of Von Kluck, regarded as the pick of the Prussian forces. In the famed battle of the Marne there were fought a number of separate engagements, which have been termed the battles of Meaux, Sezanne, Vitry and Argonne.

The German forces were driven back step by step to the north bank of the Aisne, where the army was able to entrench itself and the Germans and the Allied forces began digging

themselves into the ground in a manner that had never before been practised in warfare.

While Germany was striking at France, the Russians had invaded Austria, capturing Tarnapol and Lemberg and investing the great fortress of Prezemsyl. Austria was compelled to call upon Germany for assistance and four German army corps, under Von Hindenburg, were drawn from East Prussia and went to the rescue. Instead of trying to stem the progress of the R ians, he made a counter offensive with Warsaw as the objective. Russia was compelled for a time to abandon its positions and retreat, and Von Hindenburg got within seven miles of Warsaw before the Russians rode down upon his forces with 100,000 horsemen and compelled retreat. Von Hindenburg's strategy had, however, been successful, and his action on the Eastern front at this time marked the first step toward his pre-eminence as a military commander.

BRITISH AND GERMAN FORCES COMPARED.

During 1915 the Allied forces were able to do little more than hold their positions. Lord Kitchener had builded up a British volunteer army in which great hopes were placed, but in the matter of offensive military tactics they could not cope with the formidable German forces, nor had the Allies developed an offensive which would win without terrible sacrifice, and in the encounters the very flower of Great Britain's manhood, as well as thousands of the best fighting men of France, were lost to the world forever. It was in this year, when Germany made use of asphyxiating gas for the first time, that Canada received its most stinging blow. The famous Princess Pats, the finest military body of the Dominion, was practically annihilated, and in the final formidable attack of the year made by the French against the Germans in September, the latter were driven back several miles, but at a cost of more than 100,000 French lives.