Governor of Svalbard

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Law and order in Longyearbyen

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Av Thor B. Arlov

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– a story about the Governor of Svalbard.

The small mining camp that grew up at the foot of the valley from 1906, and which was eventually named Longyear City, was a lawless community.
Not that there was always unrest and wild conditions in the “town”; a certain amount of order prevailed, but the law was lacking. It would be almost two decades before such an arrangement was put in place, and even longer before Longyearbyen had a “police chief” in place – the Governor of Svalbard.

The lawless country

The growing interest in prospecting and mining in Svalbard in the years after 1900 created challenges for national and international law. A number of companies and individuals occupied areas with a view to mineral extraction in this orphaned land. It became common practice for these occupations to be reported to the authorities of the individual countries, who could do little more than register the claims – they could not approve any property rights. Moreover, as property claims often overlapped, there was an obvious need for some form of legal system that could resolve such issues. Conflicts soon arose between workers and management at the first mining facilities. After a major strike in Longyear City in the summer of 1912, 238 men were simply sent down to the mainland. On the other side of Adventfjorden, where the British company Spitsbergen Coal & Trading Company mined coal, there were fierce labor conflicts in 1906-07. At one point, the company approached both the Norwegian and British authorities and asked for help to create law and order. They even suggested that a representative of the company could be given police powers. Neither Norway nor the UK could intervene, of course – Svalbard was no man’s land.

Long road, small steps

As early as the 1890s, ideas were circulating in political circles and sections of the public about making Svalbard a Norwegian territory. Shortly after the dissolution of the union in 1905, the new foreign affairs administration began making plans for Spitsbergen, as the archipelago was then known. Norway proposed that an international conference be held, and at the same time offered to take responsibility for a government on behalf of the world community. Sweden reacted negatively to the proposal and demanded influence in the process. Russia did the same. In the end, the three states were jointly commissioned to draw up a proposal for an arrangement, which would then be presented to all interested parties. After two preparatory meetings in 1910 and 1912, the international conference was convened in Kristiania in the summer of 1914. The proposed treaty on the table involved a kind of condominium between Norway, Sweden and Russia, and also included proposals for police and judicial authority. This regime was not acceptable to several of the other states, and the conference ended without agreement being reached. Further negotiations were out of the question when world war broke out that fall. During the course of the war, most foreign companies discontinued their operations in Svalbard, while Norwegian interests began to take center stage. In the spring of 1916, The Arctic Coal Company was sold to a Norwegian syndicate, which later that year formed Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani. Several other coal companies were established at around the same time, including Kings Bay Kull Comp, Bjørnøen and De Norske Kulfelter. As the war drew to a close, Norwegian coal interests were completely dominant. In 1918, the government finally let the cat out of the bag and declared that it would claim Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard when the post-war settlement was reached. Peace negotiations in Paris began in 1919, and the Spitsbergen issue was dealt with by a separate commission. This ended, as we know, with the treaty of February 9, 1920, which gave Norway “full and unrestricted sovereignty over the Spitsbergen archipelago”. What had been a national ambition at least since the turn of the century had finally become a reality. The Norwegian authorities had gone a long way with small, cautious steps. However, many, including large parts of the Storting, were disappointed by all the restrictions on sovereignty. In the years after 1920, the state put a great deal of effort – and not insignificant amounts of money – into strengthening Norwegian positions on Svalbard, including through support for the operation and acquisition of coal fields. Before Norway could and would take over sovereignty, the property issues had to be resolved, and legislation and an administrative system put in place. It wasn’t until five years after the treaty that the introduction of law and order on Svalbard – and in Longyearbyen – was ready.

Governor – administrative innovation

When the Norwegian flag was raised at Skjæringa in Longyearbyen on August 14, 1925 and Norway formally assumed sovereignty over Svalbard, the Governor of Svalbard began his work as the government’s highest representative on the archipelago. The arrangement, which was enshrined in the Svalbard Act of July 17, 1925, was an innovation in Norwegian administration. Alternative solutions to the question of administration had been discussed, such as placing parts of the administration of the archipelago under the county governors of Troms or Finnmark. Partly to put to rest a heated localization debate, but perhaps just as much for financial and practical reasons, the Norwegian authorities chose instead to gather all administrative functions in one local institution – Sysselmannen. Perhaps it was to emphasize that this function was something unique in the state administration that the old term sysselmann was retrieved. In any case, it was quite apt, because in the Middle Ages, the governor was the king’s highest representative in an area, with both prosecutorial and judicial power and the right to collect taxes. At the same time, it is conceivable that the lawmakers were keen to emphasize national traditions, in the same way that they officially renamed Spitsbergen to the Norse name Svalbard. The arrangement was “provisional”; the Governor was not a permanent government official, but was to be appointed. This ensured that the authorities had the opportunity to change the arrangement if developments on Svalbard so required. This reflects the uncertainty that prevailed around Svalbard in 1925, primarily due to the reduced mining activity in the crisis years after the First World War. The first decade of the Governor’s history is also characterized by temporariness and improvisation.

Governor on shift

When sovereignty was taken over in August, Edvard Lassen, head of agency at the Ministry of Justice, was appointed to the position, and it was not until September 4 that Johannes Gerckens Bassøe was appointed as the first governor of Svalbard. For the time being, he installed himself at the state radio station at Finneset in Grønfjorden; no office or residence in Longyearbyen had been prepared, and Store Norske was not interested in offering the new governor accommodation. Bassøe spent the winter of 1926-27 in Oslo, but the following winter he stayed in Ny-Ålesund. In March 1928, he was appointed county governor of Troms, but did not take office until the fall. Meanwhile, the government was discussing a possible reorganization of the administration. Again, the solution was characterized by temporariness; Bassøe, in his capacity as county governor, was authorized to carry out the Governor’s business while the position was vacant. In fact, he would retain this authority until 1935, without being on Svalbard himself. In order to compensate for the lack of official presence, acting governors were appointed during the summer season and deputies were also appointed. Erik Håvie-Thoresen was acting governor during the summer seasons of 1929-31. In 1932, state geologist Wollmer Tycho Marlow was appointed wintering governor, and in 1933-35 Helge Ingstad served as deputy governor with residence in Svalbard, only replaced in the summers of 1933 and 1934 by Egil Lund. The Governor of Svalbard was, to put it mildly, characterized by a lack of continuity.

A permanent solution – finally

In 1935, the government realized that this could not continue. An important reason why it was now urgent to put in place a more permanent arrangement was that the Russians had established an ever-increasing presence in Barentsburg and Grumant. On August 23, 1935, Marlow was appointed governor and given a residence and office in Longyearbyen. He held this position until the population of Svalbard was evacuated in August-September 1941. The following year, in London, he resigned from the position, which remained vacant until the end of the war. Håkon Balstad, Head of Department in the Ministry of Trade, was appointed new Governor in September 1945 and arrived in Longyearbyen in the spring of 1946. In the post-war rebuilding zeal and the tense foreign policy situation in which Svalbard found itself, we might have expected a significant strengthening of the Norwegian official presence. This did not happen to any great extent. It is true that Balstad was given a new office and residence in 1949 (“Sysselmannsgården”), a permanent officer from 1950 and a service vessel from 1952, but it can hardly be called a major investment. There is much to suggest that the authorities “interests were first and foremost linked to the economic activity of mining. From 1936, Svalbard was also administratively subordinate to the Ministry of Trade (renamed the Ministry of Industry after the war). In 1953, the Governor of Svalbard was returned to the Ministry of Justice, but it was not until 1965 that the principle of the specialist ministries” authority within their own fields was reintroduced. The Ministry of Justice took over the role of coordinating ministry and the Interministerial Polar Committee was established. The Cold War, relations with the Russians and the growing international interest in petroleum activities on Svalbard formed the backdrop for the reorganization of Norwegian Svalbard administration. However, there was no focus on the local administrative body, the Governor. This was also pointed out as a problem by all governors until the end of the 1970s – Odd Birketvedt (1956-60), Finn B. Midbøe (1960-63), Tollef Landsverk (1963-67), Stephen Stephensen (1967-70) and Frederik Beichmann (1970-74). As late as 1973, there were still only three permanent positions at the governor’s office, and winter transportation was limited to snowmobiles.

The king on the hill.

In Longyearbyen, the mining company was practically the only one. Firstly, Store Norske was virtually the only employer, and the company owned the land and all important infrastructure in the town. Even the school and hospital were run by the company. And Store Norske was a private company – albeit with government representatives on the board. The Governor was the government’s representative and police authority, but for a long time the director was in practice more powerful in the town. After the war, government employees, including the Governor, were based at Skjæringa, while the director was king at Haugen. There was little doubt about who was the boss in town. As late as the 1970s, a governor complained to the ministry that everything went smoothly “…as long as you settle for being the head of Store Norske.” Although there could occasionally be more or less good-natured rivalry between the coal company and “other people”, the Governor was dependent on a good relationship with both the company and its employees. Crime statistics and criminal case registers show that Longyearbyen was largely an idyll. In the 1960s, when 700-900 people lived in the town, there was an average of only 26 criminal cases a year. Of these, only one or two involved bodily harm – or violence, in good Norwegian. Ten or twelve cases a year were classified as petty theft and criminal damage. The statistics may be a bit of a lie; in a country with a long period of darkness, there are also dark figures. Not infrequently, the Governor asked Store Norske to clean up drunken brawls and petty conflicts among employees, without the matter being reported to the police. It was the civilian tasks that dominated at the Governor’s office, not the role of “police chief”. As a kind of local universal representative for state – and in some cases municipal – authorities, the Governor was just as much a public service office for the Norwegian population on Svalbard.

New times, new opportunities.

The 1970s marked a turning point in Svalbard’s modern history. The opening of a year-round airport in 1975, the state’s takeover of Store Norske in 1976 and the development of a family community in Longyearbyen are expressions of this. The development of the position of governor is both a result of and a yardstick for the political focus on Svalbard. Leif T. Eldring was the governor who had the pleasure of leading the refurbishment in the period 1974-78, when the commission doubled the number of employees, moved into modern offices (“Palasset” in the vernacular) and also had a helicopter at its disposal. It was also at this time, in 1977, that the Governor got his own wildlife and nature conservation consultant. With the establishment of the large protected areas in 1973 and the introduction of comprehensive environmental protection regulations, the case load in this field increased dramatically. This also had consequences for the traditional police side of the commission: from the 1970s, environmental crime weighed heavily among the criminal cases investigated by the Governor. In 1978, the Ministry of Justice’s polar department was also established, giving the Governor a well-placed counterpart and partner in the central administration. The Svalbard administration gained greater weight. The Polar Department gradually built up expertise on Svalbard issues, and became both a supplier of premises and a door opener to the rest of the bureaucracy and the political environment in Oslo. Although it may not always have appeared that way to the inhabitants of Longyearbyen, there is little doubt that the Governor often measured the wishes and interests of the local population, and that the Polar Department helped to create an impact for local views. On the other hand, this “polar elite” in the capital could also have a conservative effect and close off political innovation; the tenacious aversion to local democracy is perhaps an example of this. Governor Eldring’s successors, Jan Grøndahl (1978-82) and Carl A. Wendt (1982-86), continued the expansion, and when Eldring returned for his second term in 1986, the commission had grown to eleven permanent full-time positions and five summer substitutes. By the time he left office in 1991, two more permanent positions had been added and summer commitments had more than doubled. The expansion in the 1970s and 1980s is largely an expression of a political desire for stronger sovereignty in Svalbard, but not only that. It was also a response to the new challenges faced by both central and local authorities during the period. The development of the “normal” family society and the relationship with the Russians on Svalbard are two key words here. As Longyearbyen gradually became more like a mainland settlement, it also had to cope with the various problems faced by a normal, modern local community. Child welfare, relationship breakdowns, traffic, drugs, regulations in ever new areas – in the absence of municipal and county administration, the Governor had a hand in most things. The order was also intended to assist other government agencies, primarily the directorates, which were given increased administrative authority on Svalbard. Increasingly, this also applied outside the Norwegian settlements. Until the mid-1980s, Norway exercised its authority over the Russians in a fairly restrained manner, largely conditioned by deep skepticism and open resistance from the Soviet side. This changed with President Gorbachev’s program of “glasnost” and “perestroika” from 1986-87. Barentsburg and Pyramiden opened up to the outside world and increasingly accepted Norwegian public presence and “interference”. The Governor built a cabin and helicopter platform at Finneset, and drove his official car to Barentsburg for weekly meetings with the consul or the mining company. Health inspections were carried out in the mess hall and veterinary visits to the cowshed. The Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority inspected the mines, and the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority inspected the helicopter base at Heerodden. It was the politics of small steps again – symbolic matters, some would say. In any case, the Russians and their activities were gradually integrated into the Norwegian administrative regime, more or less reluctantly.

The civilized governor.

Modernization and business development since 1990 have had a major impact on the Governor’s functions and tasks. Population growth, greater mobility, growing tourism, new economic activities and growth in research have all created a need for greater capacity and broader expertise. Over the past 10-15 years, perhaps one area has dominated the Governor’s agenda above all others: environmental protection. This was also expressed organizationally through the administrative reform implemented in 1997 during Ann-Kristin Olsen’s tenure as Governor (1995-98): the commission was given its own environmental protection department alongside a police department and an administration department. This “civilization” of the Governor coincides with other important developments in Svalbard during the period, especially the privatization of business activities, decentralization of authority and the introduction of local self-government from 2002. In many ways, the Governor has been given relatively less power in the local community, but has faced greater challenges in maintaining law and order outside Longyearbyen. One very visible consequence of this development is the establishment of a comprehensive rescue and emergency service and extensive surveillance activities. Visible because the Governor has gradually been given large material resources at his disposal – not least for transportation. Of the more than NOK 90 million allocated to the commission in 2006, around two thirds will be spent on transportation services. This is roughly the same as the entire allocation to Longyearbyen local government, and may seem overwhelming if you have a local community of less than two thousand people as a yardstick. But in a perspective where the Governor has responsibilities and tasks in a land area one and a half times the size of Denmark, with territorial waters out to 12 nautical miles and a visitor count of perhaps a hundred thousand people a year, the situation is somewhat different. Sovereignty comes at a cost.

The flagpole

When the newly appointed Governor Balstad moved into the “Swedish barracks” (Bergmesterboligen) in Longyearbyen after the Second World War, he quickly set up a flagpole. He retrieved the pole from Finneset, from the ruins of the Norwegian telegraph station, which had also served as the first governor’s office in Svalbard. As well as being an example of sensible reuse, there is heavy symbolism in this action. It has always been important for the Norwegian authorities to fly the flag on Svalbard, and the Governor is – figuratively speaking, of course – the highest flagpole. Ten years passed from the time Norway assumed sovereignty until the Governor was in place in Longyearbyen on a permanent basis from 1935. Another ten years, and then some, passed before the order began to make its mark on the local community. The official opening of the governor’s residence in 1950 was an expression of greater public investment in Svalbard in general and Longyearbyen in particular, which was emphasized by Crown Prince Olav’s visit. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the major expansion began – both for Longyearbyen as a family community and for the appointment of a governor. This development can be seen in the building history; a new administration building was added in 1978 and expanded as early as 1982. Three years after the fire in 1995, a new, modern governor’s office was built on Skjæringa with space for around 30 employees. You can say what you like about the design, but the building is monumental, which is of course a point in itself. Another flagpole. For some, it is a paradox that while the local community in general is becoming more and more like the mainland norm, a special administrative arrangement like the Governor is maintained. The “provisional” arrangement adopted by the Storting in 1925 has proved almost astonishingly tenacious. Only time will tell whether the Governor scheme will continue in the future. Regardless – law and order will probably prevail in Longyearbyen in the future too, we have to believe. And the Norwegian authorities will still have a tall flagpole on Svalbard.