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Caption: War Publications - WWI Compilation 1923 - Article 20
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bly entered Finland by way of the Aland archi yclago. The Alands are a group of rocks and the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia; only one (Aland) is of any a riahle size. They approach to within twenty miles of the Swedish series of stepping stones fragments of habited by Swedes mass; but the) most unanimous senti can be traced. the islands in favor of The material value of the Aland Islands is very slight.' The inhabi.000 folk, subsisting on what they can wrest from a thin soil or gather the waters about them. The importance of the islands in Eun, diplomacy is due to their strategic position with reference to the capigood tals of Sweden, Finland, and Russia. and the islands possess real possibilities as a military stronghold. The Russians soon came to see the advantage of a naval station at Aland and erected fortifications at Bomarsund, which were destroyed by the English and the French in the Crimean War. On the request of Sweden, Russia agreed not to rebuild the fortifications, and Aland remained unfortified until some time after the outbreak of the Great War. As Stockholm is only seventy-five miles distant, any plan to build a naval establishment on the'Alands is sure to produce uneasiness in Sweden. For similar reasons Finland and Russia are anxious that the archipelago shall not fall into the hands of the Swedes. Soon after the outbreak of the Finnish revolution a Swedish force landed on the islands ostensibly to maintain order; but they were soon displaced byGerman garrisons. At Brest-Litovsk it was agreed that the islands should belong to Finland, but also that they should never be fortified and that the shipping conditions in the waters about them should be regulated by a special agreement among the nations most interested: Germany, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. m A ** M • i A * i The efforts of Sweden to gain control of the archipelago anc! the evident desire of the inhabitants to be reunited with the mother country has caused much uneasiness and resentment among the Finns. The he S / J ! * jUands must remain a part of Finland is shared by the Swedish Finlanders as well as by the Turanian Finns. The former have organized a separate political party the object of which is to secure to their brethren
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