Aftenposten
- The Riksrett's first ruling.
- When can the grain insurance scheme be put into practice?
- The National Theatre's gala performance, a beautiful and atmospheric evening yesterday.
Aftenposten's front page of 6 October 1926 led with an editorial on the first ruling of the Riksrett convened against the former Berge government. Representative Sanne had been voted off the court in a closed session, and the paper set this against 1883, when, it said, a Venstre majority overrode the Supreme Court justices and declared 11 of its own members competent to judge the Selmer ministry, even letting them vote in their own case. A news item quoted Agriculture Minister Bærøe: the Swiss-inspired grain insurance scheme might start by spring and must start by 1 July 1927 at the latest, once the Storting had voted the money. A fragmentary report described the National Theatre's gala evening, with the King, Queen, Crown Prince and the President cheered by the crowd outside.
Translation
The Riksrett's first ruling.
Before the Riksrett of 1883–84, Venstre filled the Lagting exclusively with Venstre men. As a result the Riksrett, too, became an entirely one-coloured Venstre court. True, the Supreme Court had its constitutionally mandated representation on the court, but the Supreme Court justices were in a decided minority. Venstre had the power and used it, from the very first moment. Characteristic in that respect was the vote on disqualification that took place at one of the court's first sittings. The defence had submitted that 11 of the court's lay judges should stand down. For in the Storting in 1880 they had taken part in the well-known resolution of 9 June, which was precisely a direct result of the refusal of sanction for which the Selmer ministry had been impeached. The members of the Supreme Court voted for granting the disqualification motion. Chief Justice Thomle thus stated in his vote: "It appears clear to me that the men who took part in adopting this resolution have so strong a personal interest in upholding it as lawful and valid, and in securing its recognition, that there is good reason to fear that they will not, with their best will, which I for my part do not doubt in the least, be able to weigh the grounds for and against with full impartiality, and in that case they are not, in my opinion, competent judges in this case." But the Supreme Court's vote ran off like water off a goose. The Riksrett's Venstre majority declared its 11 fellow partisans competent, and, what particularly deserves to be noted in that connection, the 11 even took part in the vote in their own case. – We have been tempted to make this look back on the occasion of Representative Sanne being voted off the Riksrett yesterday. The vote, in which Mr. Sanne naturally did not take part, was held in a closed session, and the vote count and the reasoning are therefore for the time being a closed book. It may be that sound law has dictated that Mr. Sanne is disqualified; we can say nothing about that, nor do we wish to assess the legal side of the matter. But when, from a political point of view, one sees the decision against the background of the vote in 1883, it pales into innocent purity. So let us be spared any further talk of "the party court". A party court, such as we know it from 1883, would never have let Mr. Sanne go.
When can the grain insurance scheme be put into practice?
Perhaps as early as the spring. The Norwegian delegation that visited Switzerland to study the Swiss grain insurance scheme set to work immediately after returning home on drawing up a report on the study trip for the ministry. On inquiry, the Minister of Agriculture, Councillor of State Bærøe, states that this report was handed to the ministry yesterday. The minister further states that the said committee, consisting of Deputy Director Hillestad, Bureau Chief Normann and Storting member Sundby, is to assist the ministry in preparing the bill on the law's entry into force, and this work has already begun. Asked whether anything can be said about when the grain insurance can be put into force, the minister replies that he has no overview of that yet. The law presupposes that the insurance is to be put into force by 1 July 1927 at the latest, but there is also a possibility that it will happen earlier, he says. In any case, notice will be given well in advance. Otherwise it is difficult to say anything definite before the Storting has appropriated the funds needed to bring the law into force. This appropriation will probably be granted immediately after the Storting convenes after the New Year.
The National Theatre's gala performance, a beautiful and atmospheric evening yesterday.
…dig", in Johanne Dybwad's production, gives us from the stage one impression of beauty after another throughout the whole evening. It was therefore bound to be a beautiful and atmospheric evening yesterday. A considerable crowd stood outside the theatre when the carriages from the Palace drove up under the red canopy that had been raised over the entrance facing Studenterlunden. As the King, the Queen, the Crown Prince and the President stepped out of the carriages, all were warmly cheered. The staircase was very
Context
The bank-rescue loan behind the 1926 impeachment
The Riksrett discussed in the editorial was the court convened against Abraham Berge's former government. According to the Storting's own historical account, the case grew out of the banking crisis of the 1920s: in 1923 the government supported Den Norske Handelsbanken in Trondheim with a loan of 25 million kroner in state bills, given in secret without being laid before the King in Council or the Storting. The Odelsting voted to impeach on 14 July 1926, and Berge and six ministers from Frisinnede Venstre and Høyre were charged with acting contrary to the Constitution. When Aftenposten wrote on 6 October, the court was therefore still settling preliminary questions such as Sanne's disqualification. The trial ended in acquittal, on the ground that under the law then in force the charge had become time-barred, although the judges disagreed about the basis for acquittal.
The Selmer impeachment of 1883–84
The editorial's yardstick was the trial of the Selmer ministry. Store norske leksikon records that the ministry was impeached in 1883–1884 for refusing sanction to a constitutional resolution on ministers' participation in the Storting's proceedings, and that its conviction marked a long step towards parliamentarism, because the government's responsibility to the Storting was established. The paper ties the 9 June 1880 resolution to that refusal of sanction, which is why, in its account, the defence argued that the 11 lay judges who had voted for the resolution were judging their own cause. Chief Justice Thomle's opinion, the Venstre majority's decision to declare the 11 competent, and the claim that the 11 voted in their own case all come from the paper's retelling. Aftenposten used this history in 1926 to answer critics who called the Berge trial a 'party court'.
Why Storting members sat as judges
Store norske leksikon describes the Riksrett as it stood until the 2007 reform: up to ten members of the Lagting together with five of the permanent Supreme Court justices. The lay bench was evidently larger in 1883, since the paper says 11 lay judges were challenged at once, but the principle was the same, and it underlies the editorial's argument. The party that controlled the Lagting supplied the majority of the judges, and the Supreme Court justices could be outvoted, which the paper says happened in 1883. The same structure explains why a sitting Storting member such as Sanne could be a judge in the first place, and why the court itself decided his disqualification by vote. According to the paper, that vote was taken in a closed session and neither the count nor the reasoning had been published.
The 1928 state grain monopoly
Norway created a state grain monopoly in 1928. A 1935 English-language presentation of Norway records that the State Grain Monopoly, Statens Kornforretning, was established by an Act of 28 June 1928, giving the state the exclusive right to import wheat, rye, barley, oats and their ground products. The monopoly was also charged with encouraging domestic grain production and was obliged to buy all home-grown grain offered for sale, provided it was fit for human consumption. The Storting thus adopted this monopoly less than two years after Minister Bærøe told Aftenposten about the Swiss-inspired grain insurance scheme and its expected start no later than 1 July 1927.
Original
Riksrettens første kjendelse.
Riksrettens første kjendelse. Foran riksretten i 1883-84 besatte venstre Lagtinget med utelukkende venstremænd. Dermed blev ogsaa riksretten en helt ensfarvet venstredomstol. Riktignok hadde Høiesteret sin grundlovhjemlede repræsentation i retten, men høiesteretsdommerne var i avgjort minoritet. Venstre hadde makten og brukte den, fra første stund av. Karakteristisk i saa henseende var den inhabilitetsvotering, som foregik i et av rettens første møter. Forsvaret hadde nedlagt paastand om, at 11 av rettens lægdommere skulde vike sæte. De hadde nemlig i Stortinget i 1880 været med paa den bekjendte 9de juni-beslutning, som netop var et direkte resultat av den sanktionsnektelse, hvorfor ministeriet Selmer blev sat under riksretstiltale. Høiesterets medlemmer voterte for, at inhabilitetspaastanden skulde tas tilfølge. Justitiarius Thomle uttalte saaledes i sit votum: Det forekommer mig klart, at de mænd, der har været med at fatte denne beslutning, har en saa sterk personlig interesse i at opretholde den som lovlig og gyldig og at skaffe den anerkjendelse, at det med grund maa befryktes, at de ikke vil være istand til med sin beste vilje, hvorom jeg for mit vedkommende aldeles ikke tviler, at kunne med fuld upartiskhet veie grundene for og imot, og da er de ikke efter min mening habile dommere i denne sak. Men Høiesterets votum prellet av som vand paa gaasen. Riksrettens venstreflertal kjendte sine 11 partifæller habile, og hvad som særlig fortjener at noteres i den forbindelse, de 11 deltok endog i voteringen i egen sak. - Vi er blit fristet til at gjøre dette tilbakeblik i anledning av, at stortingsmand Sanne igaar blev votert ut av riksretten. Voteringen, hvori hr. Sanne selvsagt ikke deltok, skedde i hemmelig møte, og stemmetal og præmisser er derfor foreløbig en lukket bok. Muligens er det en god jus, som har diktert hr. Sanne inhabil, vi kan intet si derom, og ønsker heller ikke at vurdere den juridiske side av saken. Men naar man fra et politisk synspunkt ser avgjørelsen paa bakgrund av voteringen i 1883, da blegner den hen i uskylds renhet. La os saa slippe ethvert yderligere snak om» partidomstolen «. En partidomstol - slik som vi kjender den fra 1883 - hadde nemlig aldrig sluppet hr. Sanne.
Naar kan korntrygden sættes ut i livet?
Naar kan korntrygden sættes ut i livet? Kanske allerede til vaaren. Den norske delegation, som besøkte Schweiz for at studere den schweiziske korntrygd, gik straks efter hjemkomsten igang med at utarbeide en beretning til departementet om studiefærden. Paa henvendelse oplyser landbruksministeren, statsraad Bærøe, at denne beretning igaar blev overlevert departementet. Statsraaden oplyser videre, at den nævnte komité, som bestaar av underdirektør Hillestad, byraachef Normann og stortingsmand Sundby, skal bistaa departementet med utarbeidelse av propositionen om lovens ikrafttræden, og dette arbeide er man allerede gaat igang med. Paa spørsmaal om der kan sies noget om, naar korntrygden kan sættes ikraft, svarer statsraaden, at det har han ingen oversikt over endnu. Det er lovens forutsætning, at trygden skal sættes ikraft senest 1ste juli 1927, men det er ogsaa en mulighet for at det vil ske før, uttaler han. I alle tilfælder vil der bli varslet i god tid paa forhaand. Forøvrig er det vanskelig at si noget bestemt, før Stortinget har bevilget de nødvendige midler til lovens ikraftsættelse. Denne bevilgning vil antagelig bli git straks efter at Stortinget er traadt sammen over nytaar.
Nationaltheatrets festforestilling, en smuk og stemningsfuld aften igaar.
dig «, i Johanne Dybwads opsætning, gir os fra scenen skjønhetsindtryk paa skjønhetsindtryk hele aftenen igjennem. Det maatte derfor bli en smuk og stemningsfuld aften igaar. Utenfor teateret stod en anseelig menneskemasse, da vognene fra Slottet kjørte frem under den røde baldakin, som var reist over indgangen mot Studenterlunden. Idet Kongen, Dronningen, Kronprinsen og præsidenten steg ut av vognene, blev alle hjertelig hyldet. Trappeopgangen var meget