Terp, Holger: Danish Peace History - Det danske Fredsakademi

Denmark and the League of Nations
After Denmark joined the League of Nations
in 1920, the Danish defence policy was
adjusted accordingly. The Danish army and
navy were disarmed; a policy even bourgeois
politicians after much debate agreed on as
no foreign threats were seen against
Denmark 114 .
According to George Lansbury's My Quest
for Peace: “Very little money is spent on war
preparations [in Denmark in 1938]. It would
in any case be absurd for Denmark to arm
against her enormously powerful southern
neighbour. She has moreover no empire to
hold by force, or to excite the covetousness of
other countries. Iceland has the same King,
but is in no other way dependent on
Denmark. The Danish West Indies were
sold to America early this century. The sole
trace of the imperialist habits of the early
Danes is the Danish flag that flies over the
inhospitable Greenland. The country is not
out-and-out pacifist by any means.
Conscription is still the law and there is a
small "coast defence" which is hardly a real
navy. But the policy of Denmark ever since the war has been to support earnestly
every move which seemed to help peace. Nobody who considers the Danes' record can
deny that their efforts have been genuine and continuous” 115 .
Though the Danish military was small in the 1920s, it was in several times used
against striking workers 116 .
Danish politicians and idealists got involved with the promotion of the League of
Nations. Accordingly the Danish Peace Society changed its name to The Danish Peace
and League of Nations Society. When Fridtjof Nansen received the Nobel Peace Prize
114 Larsen, Knud: Forsvar og Folkeforbund: Et studie i Venstres og Det konservative Folkepartis
forsvarspolitiske meningsdannelse 1918-1922, Aarhus, 1976.
115 Lansbury, George: My Quest for Peace. 1938 pp. 105-106.
See also C. E. M. Joad’s Why War[?], mentioned in the article ’En udlænding ser paa Danmark’. In:
Fred og Frihed, 1939:4 p. 33.
And: Communication by the Danish delegation to the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of
Armaments. - Geneva: the League, [1932]. - 7 p.; Series of League of Nations publications. IX,
Disarmament; 1931. IX.15. Annex.
http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/league/le000463.pdf
116 Petersen, Carl Heinrich: Fra klassekampens slagmark i Norden. - Århus : Modtryk, 1976.