BLOODSHED IN FINLAND

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 49, 26 February 1918, Page 2

BLOODSHED IN FINLAND

THE RED GUARD ATROCITIES

History is rushing on at sucH a breakneck pace in Eastern Europe that one grows breathless in pursuit. Things that have happened in Finland, within 100 miles of Petrograd, would in other conditions have marked an epoch, writes the Petrograd correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, but.now they are mere details in the general flux of traditions, laws, manners, and politics. Finland is the most democratic country in the world, but is not sufficiently democratic for it's own Socialists. The new Diet elected in place of the predominantly Socialist Diet dissolved last August has a small anti-Socialist majority. The first step of the Socialists was to demand the immediate confirmation of Bills adopted by the last Diet, among which was the Independence Bill, which led to the Diet's dissolution by the Russian Government. The majority deferred consideration of the question ; thereupon the Socialists decided to apply force. The upheaval in Petrograd favoured their plans, and at the end of November they declared a general strike throughout the country. They had organised a " Red Guard " of workmen, who secured arms from the Russian garrison and fleet, and the •strike became a. revolution. The middle classes organised a " White Guard " of students and others to support the police, but the Red Guard often seized Government buildings, arrested a "large number of officials, police, and prominent citizens, and, under the pretence of searching for arms, broke into houses and robbed and murdered throughout the country. In frequent skirmishes between the Red and the White Guards many were killed and wounded ,and a large number of peaceful citizens suffered. In the course of the search for arms roving bands seized large sums of money at country estates.

The actual strike lasted four days, and the_Diet was compelled to yield. The seftn-Socialist Agrarian party went over to the Socialists, and a, majority vvas secured in favour of the immediate adoption of the Independence Bill, which gives the Diet and the Government elected by it supreme power within Finfiind fn place of the Russian authorities. The Senate or Government resigned, and the Socialists wished to elect a "Red" Senate in its place, but since the majority of the Diet was strongly anti-Socialist such a Government would be wholly unconstitutional. The officials refused to work under such conditions, and the present political situation Js an impasse.' The Socialist leaders, having organised and armed the roving bands of marauders who now infest the country, disclaim responsibility for their acts of brutal violence. The Russian authority in the country is now represented only by the garrison and the fleet, who are hated by the peaceful population, because of the assistance they fiave to the Socialists. The Governor-General, Nekrasoff, left Helsingfors during the Bolshevik distubances at Petrograd, and has not returned since. . The Assistant Governor-General, Baron Korff, had previously resigned. The garrison and fleet committees have gone through the farce of electing a sailor as GovernorGeneral! A number, of the imprisoned citizens have been released, but bands of the Bed Guard are still robbing and murdering in various parts of the county. ..w." ■ ■ . „.,;•:':' Stories illustrating the methods of the Red Guard are vividly told by the novelist■" Juhani, ■ who is in . Helsingiii Sanomat. He writes : ' •

I did not actually ;see the murder of M. Bjoh at Malm, riear Helsingfors, but I feel as though I.had been an eyewitness. Brigands of the Socialist revolutionary organisation came to his house, led him out, and ordered him to come to the Malm Picture Palace, which they had seized and made their centre. M. Bjon was a Swede, and knew no Finnish. lie hesitated .to follow them, because he could hot understand their object. ' Then they changed their minds, placed-the old man against-the wall of his own house, and paraded before him. Then they fired at him seven shots. The wife of the murdered man heard the shots, ran outj, and saw her husband lying with his face to the ground. She tried to carry the body away, but could not. She cried, "Isn't there one man who will help me?" The murderers laughed with that. peculiarly Finnish coarse, grating laughter, the' like of which I have never heard among any .other people, and walked off: The wife stood weeping beside tho corpse. Then a helper came who was not a Russian soldier—a tender-hearted, gentle Russian sovarisch (comrade). He helped M. Bjon's widow to carry the body into the house. The murdered man was a teacher in an elementary school. In another case, M. Bergbom, the master of an old estate at Hertonnaes, a. quiet, kindly old man, was sitting at lunch with his family, when in burst seven Red Guardsmen, shouting "HandsUp!" M. Bergbom, who was hard of hearing, on seeing tiie intruders asked, "What are they saying?" In reply he got a bullet in his forehead and fell dead, blood spurting -from thei wound. These instances are typical of scores which took place, and are still taking, place all over Finland. All the Finnish parties claim the independence, of their country, but there, is a bitter outcry against such methods of winning it. ( The food shortage, which is used by the Socialists as a means of agitation, has, through their action and the action of their friends the Russian Bolsheviks, become gravely critical.