Aftenposten
- Property relations between Norwegians and foreigners on Svalbard settled.
- Why Svensson did not shoot at the police dogs and at his other pursuers.
- Complaint about the referendum in Telemark.
Aftenposten's page of 25 October 1926 reported that the Danish Svalbard Commissioner, Professor Kr. Sindballe, had spent the previous week in Oslo negotiating with the Norwegians and foreigners claiming land on Svalbard, and reminded readers that claims he did not recognize, or that other occupants contested, would go to arbitration in Copenhagen. The paper described the end of the manhunt for Svensson, the man it called the sheriff's murderer: after he shot himself in a forest near Skolleborg farm, armed men walked home in silence, and the headline promised to explain why he had never fired at the police dogs or his pursuers. A third item reported a complaint to Telemark's Committee against Prohibition that in a Fyresdal polling district the ballots for the spirits ban lay beside the ballot box while those against it lay at the far end of the table.
Translation
Property relations between Norwegians and foreigners on Svalbard settled.
The Svalbard Commissioner, Professor Dr. juris. Kr. Sindballe of Copenhagen, spent the whole of last week in Oslo, where he conducted negotiations with the various Norwegians and foreigners who have put forward claims to land on Svalbard. As is well known, the Svalbard Treaty provides that claims which are either not recognized by the commissioner or are contested by other occupants shall be referred to arbitration before the Svalbard tribunal in Copenhagen.
Why Svensson did not shoot at the police dogs and at his other pursuers.
In the hours after the sheriff's murderer had shot himself beneath the rocky ledge in the forest near Skolleborg farm, men with rifles over their shoulders could be seen on every road and path. The forest no longer echoed with shouts and the fierce baying of hounds. The grim manhunt was over, and now the hunters made their way home, silent and grave.
Complaint about the referendum in Telemark.
The Committee against Prohibition in Telemark county has received a complaint about the procedure during the voting in one of Fyresdal's polling districts. Among other things, the complaint is that the ballots for the spirits prohibition had been laid right next to the ballot box, while the ballots against the spirits prohibition had been laid at the very other end of the table.
Context
The Svalbard Commissioner and the land-claim procedure
The post Sindballe held was created under Article 6 of the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, which required every claim to land on Svalbard that had been asserted to a government before the treaty was signed to be submitted to a commissioner. The commissioner had to be a Danish jurist appointed by the Danish government; he examined whether the claims were valid and approved or rejected them. Where a piece of land was disputed, an arbitration tribunal with one member from each country concerned was to decide, with the commissioner as chairman holding the casting vote. Denmark appointed Professor Kristian Sindballe on 13 July 1925, the treaty entered into force on 14 August 1925, and claimants then had three months to file. By the deadline 74 claims had come in, 20 of them Norwegian. Arnold Ræstad negotiated with the commissioner on behalf of the Norwegian state. The Aftenposten item catches this negotiating stage, with Sindballe meeting claimants in Oslo; its statement that unresolved claims would go to arbitration in Copenhagen is the paper's own description of the fallback.
How the Svalbard claims were finally resolved
The arbitration the article mentions never had to be used. Sindballe negotiated with the parties and succeeded in settling every dispute without the tribunal. His work ended on 10 September 1927 with the Report of the Svalbard Commissioner concerning The Claims to Land in Svalbard, which described and mapped the plots awarded. Of the 74 claims filed, 40 were approved, divided among 17 companies and private persons; together with the remaining state land these became the 41 properties on Svalbard. The headline's word 'ordnet' (settled) in October 1926 reported an outcome that was formally completed only almost a year later.
Svensson, the Ringerike police killings and Norway's largest manhunt to date
The man the article calls 'the sheriff's murderer' was Anton Svensson, a Swedish-Norwegian criminal. Together with Sigurd Madsen he shot and killed two rural police officers, Oluf Aalde and John Solumsmoen, at Haugsbygd near Hønefoss on 22 August 1926. The double killing set off the most extensive manhunt Norway had seen until then. The flight lasted two months and stretched across much of eastern Norway and into Sweden, drawing a large force of police, soldiers and dogs, with the press in pursuit. Svensson had said he would shoot himself rather than surrender to the authorities. Madsen was seized in Aremark, and the next day, after being hunted like game for a day, wounded and with advanced tuberculosis, Svensson put a revolver between his eyes and fired. Store norske leksikon dates his death to 23 October 1926 in Aremark, Østfold, two days before this edition, so the armed men and dogs in the excerpt are the closing scene of that hunt. Madsen was later sentenced to life imprisonment. The killings and the chase were the media event of the year, which is why the paper was still working through questions such as why Svensson had held his fire.
The October 1926 prohibition referendum and Telemark's vote
The Fyresdal complaint came out of Norway's second referendum on spirits prohibition. Store norske leksikon dates the new vote to 18 October 1926 and records 531,084 votes, or 55.7 per cent, against prohibition; the ban on spirits was formally lifted in 1927. Statistics Norway's county table puts the national yes share for continued prohibition at 44.3 per cent, while Telemark, with 69,463 eligible voters, returned 53.4 per cent yes. In the 1919 referendum Telemark had backed prohibition with 72.6 per cent, so support there had fallen steeply but still held a narrow majority. That close pro-prohibition result in the county is the setting for the anti-prohibition committee's interest in a polling district where, according to the complaint, the 'for' ballots lay within easiest reach. Since the national majority had already gone against prohibition, an irregularity in one Telemark district could not alter the overall outcome.
Original
Eiendomsforholdet mellem nordmænd og utlændinger paa Svalbard ordnet.
Svalbardkommissæren, professor dr. juris. Kr. Sindballe fra Kjøbenhavn, opholdt sig i hele forrige uke i Oslo, hvor han drev underhandlinger med de forskjellige nordmænd og utlændinger, som har fremsat krav paa land paa Svalbard. Som bekjendt bestemmer Svalbardtraktaten, at de krav, som enten ikke blir anerkjendt av kommissæren eller ogsaa bestrides av andre okkupanter, skal henvises til voldgift ved Svalbarddomstolen i Kjøbenhavn.
Hvorfor Svensson ikke skjøt paa politihundene og paa sine øvrige forfølgere.
I timene efterat lensmandsmorderen hadde skutt sig under fjeldrabben i skogen ved Skolleborg gaard var der mænd med gevær over skulderen at se paa alle veier og stier. Skogen gjenlød ikke længer av rop og av iltre hundeglam. Den uhyggelige menneskejakt var forbi og nu drog jægerne tause og alvorlige hjemover.
Klage over folkeavstemningen i Telemark.
Til Komiteen mot forbud i Telemark fylke er der indløbet anke over fremgangsmaaten under vlaget i en av Fyresdals valgkredser. Blandt andet ankes der over, at sedlene for brændevinsforbudet var lagt like ved siden av valgurnen, mens sedlene mot brændevinsforbudet var lagt helt i den anden ende av bordet.