The new elections in the autumn of 1918 brought a strong re action. The Radicals lost 26 seats, the Socialists lost one, the Conservative-Liberals gained 3o. These elections threw into re lief the unfair electoral system, which had hitherto secured the Left a number of seats out of all proportion to the votes cast for them. The Conservatives, assisted by Labour—where the moderates were losing power in consequence of the impossibility of achieving results by parliamentary methods—were now able to establish proportional representation. The Knudsen cabinet tendered its resignation in Jan. 1919, but as the Conservatives had no working majority it continued to sit till June 1920, when Otto Halvorsen, the Conservative leader, succeeded Knudsen. 1920-1934.—Halvorsen's cabinet was immediately laced with the most formidable labour troubles. After 1906 more Socialists had entered the storting and gained rapidly in influence. They collaborated closely with the trade unions which in 1889 had been merged into a national federation under a central com mittee, elected partly by the trade unions, partly by the Labour Party. The trade unions were similarly represented in the exec utive committee of the Labour Party. Under the influence of the Russian revolution of 1917, the Radicals gained the upper hand at the party congress and in the executive committee in 1918 ; in 1919 the Norwegian Labour Party joined the Third International, and sent a member to the executive committee in Moscow. The moderate leaders then left the Labour Party and founded the Social Democratic Party.
A wave of revolutionary feeling spread over Norway, the fruits of which were the "revolutionary" railway strike of Dec. 1920 and the national strike of May 1921. The cabinet met both strikes successfully; the railwaymen (who were State employees) capitulated unconditionally after 17 days, and the national strike proved a fiasco and caused much bitterness against the Radical leaders and Moscow. The Conservative position was strength ened ; yet in June 1921 the Government was defeated on the Prohibition question and resigned.
In Oct. 1919 a referendum had sanctioned the temporary pro hibitions of 1916 and 1917 by 489,660 votes to 305,241, over 410,000 votes not being cast. But the policy produced a trade war with Spain and Portugal, which cost Norwegian shipowners and the whole fishing population heavy losses. Smuggling, too, in creased enormously as did secret home distilling. The Prohibi tionists, supported by the Left, Labour and Socialists, replied by greater severity.
The elections of 1921, on the revised basis, gave 57 seats to the Conservative-Liberal coalition, 39 to the Left, 29 to the La bour Party, 8 to the Socialist and 17 to the new Farmers' Party. The Government, although it had lost seats and votes, remained in power, the Left holding the balance between Conservatives and Labour. Otto Blehr, who had succeeded Halvorsen, failed, and a second Halvorsen Government (March 1923) sanctioned the importation of port and sherry. A new treaty was concluded with Portugal, and the commercial war with Spain came to an end. The importation and sale of wines and brandies is now a monop oly under Government control. The shareholders get 6%, the surplus (in 1925 5,000,000 kroner) goes to public funds. The temporary measure enforcing public arbitration in industrial dis putes expired in April 1923 and was not renewed. In May 1923 Halvorsen died. His minister of finance, Berge, who succeeded on an insecure majority, endeavoured to replace prohibition by a well-controlled sale of highly-taxed brandies. The Left, Labour and some of the Farmers' Party, however, stood out for another referendum and Berge gave place to J. L. Mowinckel.
In the fall of 1923 the Norwegian Labour Party withdrew from the Third International; whereupon their left wing organized the Communist Party, which remained affiliated with Moscow. At the election of Oct. 1924 the Social Democrats secured 8 seats, the Labour Party 24 and the Communists 6, the Left numbered 36, the Conservative coalition 54, and the Farmers' Party 22. The Conservative Parties thus had a majority of two in the new storting; but as the Farmers' Party refused to form an active coalition the Mowinckel Government retained office till March 1926, when they were defeated on the budget and succeeded by a Conservative cabinet under Lykke. The municipal elections of Nov. 1925 also brought victories to the "bourgeois" parties at the expense of Labour, and even more of the Communists.
The Spitzbergen archipelago had from time immemorial been under the suzerainty of Norway, but the discovery of coal caused various international conferences to be held in Oslo. The Ver
sailles Treaty gave this group of islands and Beeren Island to Norway (1925). On March 4, 1920, the storting resolved that Norway should join the League of Nations. In the following years there was some friction with Denmark concerning Green land, which had belonged to Norway until 1814. Norway had always resented its loss, and its east coast had been regarded as the fishing and hunting ground of her west coast population. Denmark's request in 1919 for recognition by the Powers of Danish suzerainty over the whole of Greenland led to a separate agreement between the two countries, both agreeing to regard the east of Greenland as no-man's-land vis-à-vis the other. Trea ties of unconditional arbitration were concluded with various Powers (Germany, Uruguay, etc.) from 1924 onwards.
Since, despite all progress, Norway remains a relatively small, scattered and isolated nation, its political history still depends largely upon economic and financial conditions. The unrest due to the World War is to some extent perpetuated by the existence of a highly educated class more numerous than are the openings for professional employment within the country. The task of 1926-27 continued to be the restoration of the pre-war equilib rium. The connection of the extreme Socialists with Moscow, indeed, inspired a national attempt to place Dr. Nansen, the ex plorer, at the head of a non-party government. Failing this, Lykke returned to office early in 1926, with a programme of economic and financial reconstruction. In July, the discovery that during the crisis of 1923-24 Berge had secretly supported the Handelsbank with state funds and a guarantee for 40,000,000 kroner led to the impeachment of himself and his colleagues, though the pa triotism of his motives was not in question. A verdict of guilty in any particular would have involved the condemnation of the accused to pay at least 1,000,000 kroner until, during the trial itself, the law was so altered as to give the court a reasonable discretion. All of them however, were acquitted on every count (March 1927). Meanwhile a referendum (Oct. 1926) had shown that although the number of votes cast for Prohibition had in creased since 1919, the majority of 184,344 was now replaced by a minority of 108,943. A Government committee therefore rec ommended that adults should be empowered to buy liquor with an alcoholic strength exceeding 21% and in May 1927, Prohibi tion ended on these terms. The sale was entrusted to incor porated societies and restricted to the hours bewen 11 A.M. and 5 P.M. At the same time arbitration in industrial disputes was made compulsory, in spite of the strenuous resistance of Labour. In Jan. 1927 a new united Labour Party had been formed. The Moscow-led Communists were excluded, but in June when the Soviet minister at Oslo charged Britain with responsibility for the murder of his colleague in Poland, Madsen, its leader, de fended the Soviet reprisals, declaring that the lives of 20,000 Soviet hostages were not equal to that of a single Communist. The storting condemned Madsen by nearly four to one, and the police raided the offices of Communist newspapers for seditious propaganda among the British fleet. The autumn elections re duced the Communist deputies to 3, but Labour gained 27 seats and attained a strength of 5o. Conservatives and Liberals num bered 32; Farmers' Party, 26; Radicals, 29; and Labour Demo crats, 1.
After a prolonged crisis in which both Farmers and Liberals declined office, a Labour Government, under Christopher Horns rud, was formed (Jan. 26, 1928). This declared that the interests of the workers were paramount, and that it would prepare for complete disarmament and the Socialist State. Widespread panic followed, and the Norwegian Credit Bank was for a time in danger. The Labour Government survived, however, for only a fortnight, yielding place to Mowinckel and the Liberals. On May the gold standard was re-introduced, but was 'abandoned in 1931. A dispute with Denmark over a part of E. Greenland was settled in 1933. In 1935 the Socialists formed a minority gov ernment, which was confirmed in office in October 1936.
BiBmooRAPIty.—Norway (Official publication for the Paris Exhibi tion, 19oo) ; J. E. W. Sars, Udsigt over den norske Historie (19o5) ; K. Ojerset, History of the Norwegian People (1Q15) 0. I. K. Lodoen, Norges Historic, Syvende Oplag (1922) ; G. Gathorne Hardy, Norway, The Modern World Series (1925). (W. F. Re.)