Neutral Sweden labeling barrels of grease and oil as neutral. The barrels form a line to ships on the Baltic Sea from which they could reach Germany and Russia. One of a series of postcards on neutral nations by Em. Dupuis.
On the barrels: Graisse Neutre; Huile Neutre - Neutral grease; Neutral OilSuèdeIl y a bien quelques fuites . . . SwedenThere are certainly some leakages.Signed: Em. Dupuis 1916Reverse:Visé Paris. No. 112Logo: Paris Color 152 Quai de JemmapesCarte Postale
"A total of twenty-nine ships managed to escape from the Baltic by July 1916 before the Swedish government (under German pressure and as a result of friction with the British over the blockade) announced on 28 July that the Swedish navy had laid a new minefield in the Kogrund Channel at the entrance to the Sound and that only Swedish vessels would be taken by pilots through it. This had the effect of forcing vessels beyond the very shallowest draft out of Swedish waters into German minefields. The Allies protested hotly and the question became a matter of considerable discussion, but it was not until May 1917 that the Allies reached an agreement with the Swedes that permitted a total of 90,000 net tons of British and Allied shipping to leave the Baltic through the Kogrund passage in return for the release of a specific number of Swedish ships and cargoes detained by the British."
Neutral Sweden was important to the Entente Allies as it allowed access to a Russia in need of arms and other supplies, and to Germany as an important source of iron ore and other raw materials. The Swedes implemented a convoy system that could guide ships safely through the dangerous waters — mined and patrolled by submarines on both sides — of the Baltic Sea. The Kalmar Sound lies between the east coast of Sweden and the island of Öland. The Kattegat and Skaggerak are the straits separating the Danish peninsula from Norway and Sweden. The British blockade very effectively denied Germany means of sailing out of the North Sea, and gave it a means to apply pressure to Sweden and other neutral nations.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 211, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
1916-07-28, 1916, July, Sweden, blockade, neutrality, neutral, neutral Sweden.
