AN ANCIENT NATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 December 1939, Page 8

AN ANCIENT NATION

FINNS AND THEIR FREEDOM

The Finns have been known as a race for 1200 years. They passed under Russian rule 100 years ago, not as a conquered province, but as a semi-independent .grand duchy. At the end of last century, however, a period of “russification” began, and in 1905 the Finns launched a famous national strike against their persecutors. After six days the existing Government capitulated. Two years later the Russians began their persecutions again and the Finnish Diet was dismissed, a censorship imposed, and the country ruled by a “packed” Senate. After the Bolshevik Revolution, in 1917, . the Finns drew up a declaration of independence, which the Bolsheviks recognised as agreeing with their purpose, and Sweden and other Scandinavian States recognised the birth of the new Finland. However, the Russian garrisons banded together as “Red Guards” and plundered the country. The Swedes refused aid, but the Germans sent a composite division, at first numbering 12,000 men. under General Rudiger von der Goltz, and won a series of victories over the Reds. By June, 1918, the Finns had 73,000 Red prisoners of war. The cruelty of the Reds then led to a White counter-terror, in which about 15,000 people were slaughtered. In 1919 the Finnish Republic was established, and in 1920 peace was concluded with Soviet Russia in Dorpat. The following year the Karelians, who are racially linked with the Finns, revolted against Moscow, and the rising was crushed. During most of 1923 the Karelian question, brought up by the Finns, occupied the attention of the League of Nations, but the Permanent Court of International Justice determined not to deal with the matter as Russia was not a member of the League.