SOVIET AND PUPPET GROUP

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 134, 4 December 1939, Page 7

SOVIET AND PUPPET GROUP

LEASE AND CESSION OF TERRITORY

BASES FOR 'RUSSIA

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

LONDON, December 3

The Soviet-Finnish Puppet Government has signed a pact of mutual assistance and friendship as a result of negotiations between MM. Molotov and Stalin, Marshal Voroshilov, and M. Zhdanov on the one hand and M. Kussinen, Premier of the Puppet State, on the other. The' pact is immediately effective and declares that the parties are convinced that the hostilities are being carried on for the benefit of Imperialists, for which reason the pact is concluded to ensure the territorial integrity of Russia and Finland. It is provided that the Russian Government will lease Hanko, with adjoining territory, for naval and military bases. Russia cedes to Finland 23,330 square miles of Karelia. Finland moves the frontier further away from Leningrad, thus ceding 1300 square miles to the Soviet, for which £600,000 will be paid in the form of compensation to the Finnish Republic. I The Soviet also buys for I £1,500,000 eight islands in the Gulf of Finland and the northern Finnish peninsulas. The signatories are to assist each other in the event of aggression by a third Power, and will not conclude any treaty with a third Power which was directed against either signatory. An economic convention will be concluded providing for an annual turnover of £4,000,000. The Soviet will sell cheap, arms to Finland. 25 YEARS' CURRENCY. The treaty will be valid for a quarter of a century and may be renewed for a similar period if not denounced! at a year's notice. Yesterday M. Molotov informed the American Ambassador, Mr. Steinhardt, that Russia would not negotiate with the Helsinki Government owing to the inclusion of M. Tanner, but was prepared to conclude an agreement with the Terioki Government. The Soviet indicated that through the medium of a proclamation by the Finnish Communist Party she will consider an armistice on the following terms: (1) The formation of a democratic people's Government; (2) the conclusion of a pact of mutual assistance based on the Soviet demands before the war; (3) changes in the structure of the Finnish State and economic life, but "by no-means sovietisation of Finland."