FINLAND AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 224, 21 September 1935, Page 17

FINLAND AFFAIRS.

CROSSROADS PROBLEM. BLOC DRIFT RUMOUR. HELSINGFORS, Finland, August 15. Poland's Foreign Minister, Josef Beck, accompanied'by Secretary General Count Lubiensky, arrived to-day for a fourday official visit which in advance has caused unusually widespread comments in Polish, German and Russian newspapers as signifying a remarkable political event. In various quarters abroad, particularly in the Soviet Press, it is even rumoured that Finland is inclined to join the Polish-German bloc directed against Russia. Cordially greeting Mr. Bock, Finnish Conservative and Liberal newspapers apparently are anxious to emphasise the visit merely as an act of courtesy lacking all political implications. Consequently, the papers strongly deprecate the insinuations of the fjoviet Press as unfounded. An outspokenly critical attitude, however, is talcrn by the leading Labourite organ, "Suomen Social-demokrati," which after enumerating efforts during and after .the World War to win the domination of East Europe, stresses the danger now threatening from Poland and Germany. The journal adds that Finland must tell Mr. Beck that the nation absolutely refuses to serve as a tool in imperialists' hands and likewise declines to induce her neighbours to doing so. It insists that the Finnish Government clearly announces the country's foreign political attitude, because the present obscurity cannot continue. Parliament must make its will known in this matter, it says.