the railway lines on both sides of the Gulf and a need for some kind of fortification in Boden, but he also toned down the earlier thoughts on the Russian interest in the Luleå–Narvik line. Rappe's report directly affected the future stretch of the railway line in Norrbotten. His recommendations, largely based on his and the General Staff's military planning, not to build the line along the coast, or build it all the way to the Swedish-Finnish border at Haparanda were later followed. The subsequent report completed in 1890 by the Neutrality Committee of 1888 ()—with Axel Rappe as one of its members—suggested that a credible neutrality required an increased defence of the north-eastern border and proposed a budget of 1.3 million Swedish kronor, corresponding in today's money to around US$11 million (as of 2011), for the construction of permanent fortifications in Boden. Reason and decision Why Boden? The following year, in 1891, Rappe wrote a memorandum that explained in more detail the budget, which suddenly had risen to 4.5 million kronor, and would finance the construction of two strongholds at Paglaberget and Åberget with a total of six long cannon, ten howitzers and eight quick-firing cannon, all in armoured turrets, along with machine guns and bunkers, barracks and supply depots. The plan included a reserve battalion of 1,000 men, an artillery battalion of 600 men, an engineer company of 120 men, and supply and depot personnel. Axel Rappe's large study on the permanent fortifications of Sweden—a mandate given to him in 1882—was published in 1892 and cemented the view that a central fortress was needed in Boden to support and supply troops gathering between the Lule River and the eastern border, alongside the strengthening of the coastal defences at Stockholm, Gothenburg and Karlskrona. Although Rappe did not completely rule out the possibility of a German or British attack on southern Sweden if the opportunity arose, he felt that Russia was the most realistic threat. There were only two plausible scenarios for war with Russia: either Sweden would become involved in a war between Germany and Russia which would feature southern and central Sweden as the battleground—and Rappe made no attempt to hide which country the General Staff wanted Sweden to side with in that case—or Russia would make a limited attack on Norrbotten to reach northern Norway and the Atlantic, an attack that Rappe earlier said was not very