He desired peace with Russia first of all, and at the congress of Aland even obtained relatively favourable terms, only to have them rejected by his obstinately optimistic master.
The majority of these occupy the island of Aland, upon which is situated the town of Mariehamn with a population of 1171.
The Aland Islands occupy a position of the greatest strategic importance, commanding as they do both the entrance to the port of Stockholm and the approaches to the Gulf of Bothnia, through which the greater part of the trade of Sweden is carried on.
By the "Aland Convention," concluded between Great Britain, France and Russia on the 30th of March 1856, it was stipulated that "the Aland Islands shall not be fortified, and that no military or naval establishments shall be maintained or created on them."
The question of the Aland Islands created some discussion in 1907 and 1908 in connexion with the new North Sea agreements, and undoubtedly Russia considered the convention of 1856 as rather humiliating.
