FINLAND'S NEED FOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 36, 12 February 1940, Page 6

FINLAND'S NEED FOR

HELP

The British Labour delegation which has just returned from Finland has done a great service in giving first-hand news of the military situation in that country under renewed pressure of attack from Soviet Russia. It must be clear now to the whole world that the gallant and hitherto successful resistance of the Finns cannot be continued indefinitely without substantial assistance from tlie outside. The "Daily Herald," the leading Labour paper in Britain, puts the matter in a nutshell when it says: "Unless democracy gives a great deal more help to Finland, Finland will fall and civilisation will be shamed." The "Manchester Guardian" comments on the delegation's report:

It is now realised in this country the fate which is certain unless outside aid is sufficient, a fate which will harm us as surely as it will ruin Finland.

Of the Russian aggressor President Roosevelt expressed the general view held today that "Russia has a dictatorship as absolute as any other in the world," and "allied with another dictatorship has invaded a neighbour so infinitesimally small that it could not injure the Soviet."

Nor is the President alone in his confession of his own "early interest in the Russian experiment in the hope that it would lead to the betterment of the nation," and in his present realisation that "that hope today, is either shattered or put into storage against a better day." The President was addressing the American Youth Congress, and his remarks had special point because of the controversy, according to the cable news, concerning its refusal to denounce the Russian invasion of Finland and the charges that its council is Communistically inclined. Fortunately, such views current among a certain class of youth in America and elsewhere are not likely to affect the general condemnation. What is of importance is that the help Finland so urgently needs should be forthcoming without delay. The President's appeal should hasten the rush to the rescue of Finland.