.

The little country was between two fires, and she suffered great strain.
In the first place, while Norway attempted to maintain her export trade
and her shipping, the Allies inspected her import invoices and subjected
her to much annoyance, while Germany, without provocation, ruthlessly
attacked her merchant ships and sent many of them to the bottom of the
ocean.

There were intimations that Germany's real intent was to precipitate a
rupture which would justify her attack on the little country, which she
would be able to subdue with ease and seize the rugged coast and ports
of vantage. But Norway remained neutral, and was not at all pleased with
the embargo placed upon shipments by the United States, though it
developed that the restrictions would not prevent the country from
getting its share of grain and other supplies from America.

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