Duplicity Exposed

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 117, 10 February 1940, Page 15

Duplicity Exposed

“Recent events have shown how grave is the responsibility of Germany for the Soviet invasion of Finland. All the evidence available indicates that the occupation of Finland and the Baltic States was one of the conditions for the conclusion of the Soviet-German pact last August. “Support for this view is to be found in the causes, now disclosed for the first time, of the breakdown of the Anglo-Franco-Soviet negotiations and the conclusion of a German-Soviet pact instead. Great Britain and France had been trying for some months before the invasion of Poland to conclude a pact with the U.S.S.R. as a deterrent to German aggression. It is now known that they failed owing to the British and French refusal to agree to Russian demands which would have endangered the integrity of the Baltic States and of Finland.

“Thus, as part of the price of their alliance, the Soviet Government insisted that Great Britain and France should persuade Finland and the Baltic countries to put naval bases on the coast and on the islands of Oesel and Dago and the Aaland Islands at Russia’s disposal. Great Britain and France refused to traffic in the sovereignty of smaller countries.

“During the negotiations Finland and the Baltic States emphasized their anxiety that no arrangements should be concluded which might compromise their nejjtrality-fljid to which they were not a party,. Nazi Germany clearly had no such scruples, and in return for the pact was prepared to barter the independence of the Baltic States and Finland.”—“The Times” diplomatic correspondent.