The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, DECEMBER 4th, 1939. THE BALTIC DEBACLE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 96, 4 December 1939, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, DECEMBER 4th, 1939. THE BALTIC DEBACLE

THE long' undisturbed peace of the Baltic countries has been rudely shattered, and the uncouth figure of the gigantic Soviet military machine has been set in motion to stalk roughshod over the inoffensive and desperately fearful state of Finland. The Scandinavian sister states, unused to war for hundreds of years, and with their policy of neutrality recently made known to the world by joint proclamation have mobilised and. armed their meagre forces in the face .of the spectre of conflict which now hovers at their very gates. This new development in the ,mad whirlpool of troubled world affairs has come like a bomshell to the belligerents engaged in snarling at each other across the fortified borders "of France. What can it mean? Has the whole, fabric: of recognised international relationship gone completely out of hand. The major nations of the Orient are locked in a fierce life and death struggle; the British peoples occupying one fifth of the world's land surface engaged with the Tricolour of France in destroying the Nazi menace which for years has threatened are .peace of Europe; America fearfully intrigued and haunted with dread of likely repercussions watching the: trend of events from the far shores of the Atlantic. And now the Baltic conflagration! The unwritten pledges of encouragement and help from the U.S.A. to the Finns may yet embroil the fighting men of OM Glory, buti. . . . who can tell? The smaller nations of Europe, with the ghastly example of Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, and Finland fresh in their memories, tremble with anxiety that they might share the same fate. What of the future? The man in the street does not know, but this he does know —that the stage is set for what may yet develop into the greatest and bloodiest conflict in the history of mankind. But why? The same question has been asked by millions and will never be answered until nations chose to elect men of peace to handle their affairs.