Evening Post. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1939. FINLAND UNDER FIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 132, 1 December 1939, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1939. FINLAND UNDER FIRE

Refusing to wait even a few hours to study the Finnish Government's conciliatory Note, offering to submit the matters in dispute to arbitration and in the meantime to withdraw troops from the frontier, the Soviet Government has deliberately forced the issue, invaded Finnish territory, and bombed Finnish cities from the air. An offer of the United States Government, through the Secretary of State (Mr. Cordell Hull), to mediate was similarly ignored. The reason for the Russian attack on Finland was put forward by M. Molotov in tlie following words:

The hostile policy of the present Finnish Government compels us to take immediate steps to safeguard the external, security of our State. The Soviet patiently negotiated certain proposals which were the minimum guarantee of the safety of our country, particularly, of Leningrad, in view of the international tension, but Finland adopted an irreconcilable attitude and acted in the interests of foreign imperialists .and warmdngers.

There is nothing whatever, in the attitude of Finland or in the international position to justify this charge of M. Molotov's, the language of which will be recognised as common to all the preliminaries to unprovoked aggression of powerful States against weaker neighbours. If to refuse demands which threaten the independence of a country is to be irreconcilable, then the Finns were irreconcilable —in the eyes of the Soviet making the demands, but not in the eyes of the world. In any case, the Finnish Goyernment was prepared to negotiate or submit the issues to neutral arbitration.

Then the "international tension" pleaded as an excuse does not affect the Baltic —or else the fate of Poland might have been different. Germany and Russia, united in a nonaggression pact, control the Baltic, as all the other States bordering on its waters are small and strictly neutral. Leningrad was in no danger from Finland, and to talk of Finland acting "in the interests of foreign* imperialists and warmongers" is just Bolshevik claptrap, unless the Scandinavian States and America come under the category of "imperialists and warmongers." The truth is simply that Soviet Russia decided to seize the favourable opportunity presented by Nazi Germany's venal acquiescence to deal with Finland as she had already dealt with the more amenable Baltic Republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and restore the control over the eastern shores of the Baltic once held by Tsarist Russia. It is not enough for M. Molotov to say "We regard Finland as an independent sovereign State" and to talk of "a reunion of the Karelians with the Finns as a united, independent Finnish nation." The Finns know what happened t.o the Czechs after similar assurances by the leader of Nazi Germany. But the Finns were ready to meet any reasonable demands by negotiation, and something might have been achieved had not the Soviet been in a hurry with winter at hand and the Gulf of Finland freezing up, just as the Germans were in a hurry with Poland in September to get the job of conquest done before the autumn rains arrived.

Thus the Finns, a small nation of four million people, find themselves at war with an all-powerful neighbour with a population over forty times as great. The procedure has been the same brutal total warfare inflicted by Germany on Poland —the bombing of centres of population, powerless to defend themselves or to retaliate. 'Such aerial massacres, it will be noted, are only attempted where one nation has^ absolute command over the other in the air. As Mr. Chamberlain pointed out in his broadcast last Sunday, tlie absence of major air attacks on Britain by Germany is not due to reasons of humanity. Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday on the present plight of Finland Mr. Chamberlain said: .

His Majesty's Government deeply regrets this fresh attack upon a small independent nation which must result in fresh suffering and loss of life to innocent people.

The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Attlee) asked whether the Government had received from the Soviet Government any statement regarding what appeared to be "an indefensible act of unprovoked aggression." Mr. Chamberlain replied: "No, sir. None at all." He added that the Finnish Note delivered at Moscow immediately before the announcement of the rupture of diplomatic relations was of a most conciliatory character. The consequences of this latest demonstration of power-politics cannot be foreseen. It is uncertain how long the Finns can and will, without assistance, resist the impact of tremendous military forces. The

Scandinavian nations must be greatly perturbed by this new display of ruthless force so close to their boundaries. But can they run the risk of active assistance to Finland? Then, again, what is the price of German acquiescence in Russia's action in Finland? Is it a free hand or collusion elsewhere? One thing is certain, and that is that Finland will have the sympathy of the whole world, and more especially of the United States, for which the "New York Herald-Tribune" speaks, in a passage in the news today:

It may be of little moment to the Kremlin to know that if Finland is invaded it will have the moral support of every man and woman in the United States whose opinion is worth consulting.

With every little nation in Europe —and, for that matter, the world — fearing for its fate, the prayer for them and from them will be that moral support may be translated into something more real and practical before it is too late.