Zafar Shayan
“Education is the only certain road to the final goal of peace. And there is no higher goal!”
Klas Pontus Arnoldson
Klas Pontus Arnoldson was a Swedish politician, author, peace activist, and a co-winner of the 1908 Nobel Peace Prize. He was born in 1844 in Gothenburg and died in 1916 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Mr. Arnoldson worked as railway clerk for ten years (1871-1881). In 1881, he was elected as a member of Swedish parliament. He supported arbitration and international law, and devoted himself to pursuit peace all his life. in 1883, Arnoldson established the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, which works for sustainable peace through knowledge, cooperation and diplomacy.
Arnoldson’s most important peace work is preventing war between Sweden and Norway. The two countries were formally united from 1814 to 1905. When the Norwegian parliament decided to withdraw from the union, a controversy between the two countries emerged and Sweden threatened Norway to use force. Arnoldson stood for Norway’s right to be independent. He said, “Peace with Norway, whether the union sinks or swims”. He as warded 1908 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to establish peace between the two countries.
The Nobel Prize: www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1908/arnoldson/facts