ARMY READY FOR ACTION— Communist Disruption In Finland

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 August 1949, Page 5

ARMY READY FOR ACTION— Communist Disruption In Finland

HELSINKI, August 19 (Rec 10 a.m.).-—Finland’s army was today ordered to be ready for action against the pickets molesting men and women obeying the Government’s “return to work’ appeal. Reinforced armed guards were placed over the army arsenals and munition stores. The moderate Social Democrat Government took this step after more workers had joined the Communist strike movement for higher pay and new disorders had broken out at Kemi, where one striker was killed and six injured in a fight between .the police and pickets yesterday.

Seventeen people, including the Mayor, were arrested in a raid early today on the Communist Party’s headquarters at Kemi. Five hundred troops, with full field equipment, are encamped around the town with orders to suppress disorders immediately. Acting on instructions from the Ministry of the Interior, the police are searching houses for suspected hidden arms. A few hours after the army was alerted for action today the Finnish Trades Union Federation threatened the four Communist-led unions with expulsion unless their striking members returned to work by next Wednesday. The unions threatened are the Transport, Provision, Forestry and Timber Floaters’ Unions. Lumberjacks, timbei’ floaters and plumbers today poined the wave of 1 Communist-led strikes. The plumbers’ strike is a total one, but hewing and floating are proceeding normally in a number of important timber areas. At Kemi, half the floaters are at work. Five hundred soldiers and a reinforced police force are protecting the workers from strike pickets.