Aftenposten
- "Isbjørn" Went North Yesterday
- The Fur Pelt
- Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Søgne
Aftenposten's page for 8 November 1926 carried a short shipping report on the Isbjørn. The ship finished fitting out, went to Horten, had its compasses and direction-finding gear corrected, and then headed west on its way north. An editorial titled "Skindfelden" took up an interview the Russian minister in Oslo gave for the ninth anniversary of the revolution, starting with the question of how the Soviet working class was faring. From the south, the paper reported that officials meeting over the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Søgne had agreed to lift the most burdensome restrictions from Thursday morning. Cinemas, bazaars, meetings and church services could then resume, provided no new cases were confirmed.
Translation
"Isbjørn" Went North Yesterday
On Saturday afternoon the Isbjørn was at last finished with its fitting-out, etc., and went to Horten. Yesterday morning the boat corrected its compasses and its direction-finding apparatus. Later in the afternoon the boat went westward. They are to put in at …
The Fur Pelt
In an interview on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the revolution, the Russian minister here is asked the following question: "How is the general position of the working class in the Soviet Republic?" The minister answers: …
Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Søgne
Division Head Slagsvold and County Governor Koren held a conference here in town on Saturday. It was decided that the most burdensome restrictions are to be lifted from Thursday morning. From that day, accordingly, the cinemas will be opened, the interrupted bazaars may continue, and all other kinds of meetings, church services among them, will be permitted. All this is on the condition that no new cases of foot-and-mouth disease are confirmed, which the division head …
Context
Adolf Hoel and Norway's Svalbard expeditions
The report records only the Isbjørn's last preparations: fitting-out completed, a run to Horten, compasses and direction-finding gear corrected, and a westward course on the way north. In these years, Norwegian scientific voyages into the Arctic were organised around the geologist Adolf Hoel. He became a docent at the university in 1919, which explains why the press of 1926 called him "Docent Hoel." Hoel had made himself the leader of the state-supported scientific and mapping expeditions to Svalbard. The Norwegian encyclopedia credits that activity with supporting Norway's case when it took over Svalbard in 1925. In 1926 the work still depended on expeditions sent out each season. Hoel set up a permanent institution, Norges Svalbard- og Ishavs-undersøkelser, only in 1928, after Svalbard had become Norwegian. This news of a ship heading north appeared the year after Norway took over the archipelago in 1925.
Which Soviet envoy was "the Russian minister here"?
The editorial quotes an interview, given for the ninth anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917, with "the Russian minister here," meaning the Soviet envoy in Oslo. The Soviet envoys to Norway in the 1920s included Alexandra Kollontai, but she was not the person interviewed in November 1926. Her first term as Soviet minister plenipotentiary to Norway ran from 15 February 1924 to 4 March 1926. From 17 September 1926 she held the corresponding post in Mexico. The minister quoted in November 1926 was therefore her successor in Norway, Alexander Makar. Kollontai returned to the Norwegian post only on 25 October 1927. The opening question, about the general position of the working class in the Soviet Republic, made workers' living conditions the subject of the anniversary interview. The paper quoted that exchange under its own editorial heading.
Norway's first encounter with foot-and-mouth disease
The Norwegian encyclopedia dates the country's first foot-and-mouth outbreak to Sørlandet, the southern coast where Søgne lies, in autumn 1926. It describes the outbreak as effectively fought and ended by spring 1928. The Søgne report therefore comes from the first autumn of a disease Norwegian farmers and officials had not faced at home before. The encyclopedia calls the virus extremely contagious and able to spread across whole regions in a short time. That helps explain why the officials meeting in town waited until Thursday before lifting the harshest restrictions. It also explains why they tied the relaxation to the condition that no new cases be confirmed.
Why cinemas, bazaars and church services were closed
The encyclopedia lists many routes of infection for foot-and-mouth disease: transport of animals and milk, purchases of fodder, contact between people, and imports of meat, among others. Because people themselves could carry the infection, closing cinemas, halting bazaars and suspending meetings, church services included, served to limit contact. The same encyclopedia describes present-day Norwegian practice, in a country normally free of the disease, as culling infected herds combined with disinfection and cordons. That passage describes today's policy. The Søgne report supplies the detail for 1926: the authorities had extended their measures from livestock to public gatherings of people, and they reopened them only on condition that no new cases appeared.
Original
"Isbjørn" gik nordover igaar.
Lørdag eftermiddag blev» Isbjørn «omsider færdig med utrustningen etc. og gik til Horten. Igaar formiddag korrigerte baaten sine kompasser og peileapparatet. Utpaa eftermiddagen gik baaten vestover. Man skal ind -
Skindfelden.
I et intervju i anledning av 9-aarsdagen for revolutionen stilles den herværende russiske minister følgende spørsmaal: - Hvorledes er den almindelige stilling for arbeiderklassen i Sovjetrepublikken? Ministeren svarer:
Mund- og klovsyken i Søgne.
Avdelingschef Slagsvold og fylkesmand Koren hadde lørdag en konferanse her i byen. Det blev bestemt, at de mest følelige restriktioner skal ophæves fra torsdag morgen. Fra denne dag vil saaledes kinematografene bli aapnet, de avbrutte basarer kan fortsætte, likesom alle andre slags møter, deriblandt gudstjenester, vil bli tillatt - alt under forutsætning av at der ikke konstateres nye tilfælder av mund - og klovsyken, hvad avdelingschefen