"FINLAND DAY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 17, 20 January 1940, Page 10

"FINLAND DAY."

AMERICAN SYMPATHY: HOOVER LEADS CRUSADE. | | OVERWHELMED WITH GIFTS. j. (I'roin Our Own Correspondent.) [ SAX FRAN"CISCO, December IS. j Probably one of the busiest men in i America these days is ex-President HerI bert Hoover, who has organised a nation- \ wido fund for the relief of embattled * Finland and he has been unsparing in ; his condemnation of the ruthless invasion of Finland by .Soviet Kussia s \ armies. ? Mr. Hoover hurried to Xew York ' from Jii* campus mansion at Stanford \ University, near San Francisco, to par- \ ticipate in a "giant rally'' in Madison I Square Hardens, and he told the great gathering that America is appalled by tho muttering inflicted uppn the religious and political minorities in Kurope. He appeared on the platform after former Governor M. Landon, of Kansas. >poke from Topeka and declared America's "real weapon of defence'' is "a common passion for liberty, a common will to mutual acceptance/' A: capacity crowd of nearly 20,U00 jammed the. big hall. A man identified by the police as Leo Okin, of Brooklyn, was ejected in a-i t flurry of lists —the only disturbance of! the evening—when he interrupted a speech by William Green, president of tlie American Federation of Labour, as he bitterly denounced Adolf Hitler audi Joseph Stalin. Hoover's Impassioned Plea. Pleading for aid to Europe's war dis-j tressed, INIr. Hoover said: "Happily we are not so accustomed to the sight of j blood or the cries of the defenceless that our sense of justice has been dulled or tJie wcllspring of our pity run dry. I fervently hope an all-wise Providence 1 will speed the. day when these dreadful » scenes may be removed from the * world/'

Mr. Herbert Hoover. Ho paid :i tribute to the courage of the Finns and Poles and concluded: "I can add little to the eloquent words which , you have heard here except that by my presence I can join in your feeling of indignation and in your desire to serve and in that J am your servant." Mayor La (tuardta, of New York, said the situation in Europe "is r.o longer methodical and deliberate -oppression and abuse based upon hatred of any one religion. It is a new cruelty/' he shouted, "of exploitation of occupied iands taken contrary to all rules of civilisation." Mr. Green declared the "free people of America" would "never acquiesce in or accept the triumph of Stalinism and Hitlerism in Poland. Austria. Finland or the Balkan States," and added. "We favour a resort to the Uou of all moans at our command, short of war. in order to prevent these brutal dictators from accomplishing their dastardly purpose." The mass meeting was sponsored by the American Jewish Congress, the American Federation of Labour, the Church Peace Union and other labour and religious groups as "America's challenge to Xazi torture of Jews and others in Poland and other conquered areas/' The audience, silent as black-clad cantors standing under a flag-draped balcony chanted an ancient Yiddish memorial prayer for the victims of war and oppression, cheered adoption of a 1 c.-olution calling on President Roosevelt to extend aid to the Jews of Poland and "to convoy to tlie German Government America's abhorrence and condemnation of this oppression." Earlier they cheered Dr. Stephen S. Wise, president of the America Jewish Congress, when he pledged Jewish support of the Roosevelt neutrality policy and then declared: "Wo would' be unworthy of being American free men if wo did not challenge a nation, however mighty to cease warring upon a necessarily defenceless minority/' t / r Jy\7T l ", U,m ' rPa<l b >' Dr - Charles ' arland, secretary emeritus of the 1,! . 1 . Council of the Churches of Uirist in America, condemned the "unparalleled acts of aggression which have resulted in the dismemberment of Poland, the ruthless invasion of Finland. the strafing of unfortified cities the murder of civilians." '' "Finland Day." H ■'V Ti th , C Unito(l Statcs Governors n I n Member 17. as "Finland Hay, and all the lead!,,., churches Of the country held special services, in Which stronglv-worded sermons were delivered condemning (he invasion of 1 inland, and the collections were devoted to aiding distress in that countrv. subscribed to the fund for the relief of Finland, of which Mr. Hoover is chair i l ,i a d n aHWo° r^ niSer - poured Stafp- • i news P a P ers of the United a "d were dispatched to headquarters m Now York. soifth !!f s « honi T.t iu . Palo Alto - 33 south of San Francisco, Mr. Hoover was thoVi ,el ' n , o<l , Wi ° l do » llti0 » s towards ' enlar J ° f 0110 of P» r - So V-° x- US tllilt received from lier ,ln C [° tary , tllc Ir,,ove| - J'onic said •1,1 I co » ta '>>ed "stacks'' of letters f d ?rn' n,S , 0 " Cl ° S,n " che( l ,,es f "'' the 111(1, although contributors had been !!,,.? P»l>l>cly to send them to local LMspapcis. AH wore being forwarded the central headquarters of the fund m -New \ork, she said.