FINLAND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 6 August 1924, Page 8

FINLAND.

HOME OE ATHLETES, (Sydney Morning Herald.) In these days of universal devotion to support there is no more effective means of national advertisment than success in international athletic competitions. By the victories of her sons at the Olympic Games libs secured move, and probably better, publicity than she gained during the previous seven . years of her independent nationhood. People to whom 'Finland was merely a georaphicaL expression 'are noiy asking what manner of State is this which can produce marvellous athletes such as Nurmi and Ritola. The answer lies largely in the long distance events in which those runners excel. They call, above everything, for endurance, and Finland perhaps more than any country demands endurance from her people. Finland has few advantages in the way of soil or climate. It is largely a land of forests, lakes, and rivers, with patches of open country which give harvests of rye grudgingly. More than once L liavo heard it remarked that no one but the Finns could ever do, anything with Finland. .Certain it is that' none but the . hardiest could wrest a living from such an ungenerous .soil. On the whole it is a flat country with, a superficial ruggedness imparted' by tho glacial epoch, which lias left, huge boulders, often literally the size of a house, dotted about, the landscape.

The coastal towns are largely in-, habited by Swedes, and the Swedish tongue is most frequently heard there,! but beyond the coastal area the population is almost entirely Finnish, and, judging by their names, it is from the Finnish section of the community that the country’s athletic representatives are drawn. The Finns are of Mongol extraction, but, beyond; t\l certain broadness of countenance and highness of cheekbone, they bear no great resemblance to any Eastern race. Domiciled in such stern surroundings/ they are a somewhat dour, but not an unkindly, people. They have two outstanding virtues, ‘ cleanliness and honesty, and it is claimed for Finland that she has the highest percentage of. literates in the world. For those who see the world’s salvation in the spread of education it will be disconcerting to learn that abominable cruelties were inflicted by both Whites and Reds in the civil 1 war which Hvlas waged In Finland so recently as 1917-18. A land of surprising natural beauty, Finland was the favourite summer ersort of the residents of Petrograd. Her southern frontier lay almost in the environs of the city, and many Russians possessed “dachas” (country villas) in the woodland between the frontier and Viborg, one of the largest Finnish towns. Up till 1917, J when the Kerensky Government gave the Finns their independence, Finland was an autonomous State within the Russian Empire. As a result of personal observation, I could never bring myself to believe in that Russian oppression which was always a grievance of the Finns. They had their own Houses of Legislature, and many women sat in the representative Assembly. In consideration of a cash subsidy, they were exempt from military service, and they practised their own religion (Lutheran) with freedom, and had their own coinage. A Russian GovernorGeneral resided in Helsingfors, and the Emperor exercised the power of veto-" ing legislation which the Imperial Government thought inimical to the interests of the Empire. I have visited Finland in summer and in winter, under peaceful conditions an<£ when she was torn with internal strife. I recall a pleasant holiday spent at Imatra, in the central south, where the turbulent Vuoksa River rushes along through delicate .woods of silver birch, and is broken into a mass of white foam as it shoots the Imatra rapids for a quarter of a mile, and, hardly having regained, semblance of comparative composure, it is agaim Jashed into whiteness by the Walinkoski Falls. The southern coast was as attractive as the interior. Deeply indented and thousand isled, a journey through the Skerries was a succession of delights, best, perhaps, on a moonlight night, with, a s I remember on one occasion, some temperamental and patriotic soul rendering the Suomi song, the national air, which the Finnish composer Sibelius uses so effectively more than once. The outbreak of the war stirred the Filins to hopeful anticipation that a Russian victory would usher in an era of liberalism and bring nearer that national independence, which they ardently wished. In these early days of August, 1914, when tho world came tumbling about our ears, I /entered Finland at the town of Torneo, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, in company with many Russians whom the outbreak of war had found in Germany, and a. few English people who were rushing back to business or diplomatic posts in Russia. As we crossed a bridge connecting Haparanda-, on the Swedish side, with Torneo, on the Fin-nish-Russian. frontier, we passed a, long file of Germans from Russia, many of them personal friends, making for "the Ifatherland. Un presenting our English passports at the Customs point the attitude of the Finns towards England was demonstrated by a courteous raising of their caps by‘the Customs officials—England, as ever, the hope of oppressed peoples. It was on the railH ' a .y journey from Torneo to Petrograd that I saw the Finns at their best. The peasants .awaited the arrival of our train at all stations with large supplies of food and milk, which they gave freely to the Russians on the train. The war took me to distant fields, and it was the autumn of 1917 before I entered Finland, now a republic at lorneo, en route to Russia. In "expressing their independence the Finns had removed the Russian phrases from tho instructions to passengers posted in the railway carriages, leaving only the Swedish and Finnish, and they plainly j-esented the presence in their country of the large numbers of Russian soldiers, who, even then, were pretty well out of hand. Six months ilater I again found myself in Finland. Russia had been engulfed in a wave of Bolshevism, and it was no longer advisable for foreigners to remain there. In the company of a large party, consisting of British Embassy officials, military officers, and members of the Anglo-Russian Commission, I left Petrograd for Helsingfors. Here the same conditions that made life a nightmare in Petrograd and Moscow prevailed—an orgy of robbery and mur. der, with the darkness of night punctured by rifle and revolver shots and the screams of victims. Following the success of the Bolsheviks in Russia, the Finnish Social Democrats, aided bv the Bolshevised ’ Russian soldiers and sailors, had seized power, and they held all southern Finland, including Helsingfors, the capital. In the north the Whites, mostly landowners and tanners, had been' organised by .General Mannerheim. a Finn who had commanded a Russian army corns. Tlie belligerent forces lay across our track to Torneo, but both parties desired the assistance or friendship of England, and in that fact lav our chance of

escape. The Reds in Helsingfors were most obliging. They hustled the English party on to a special train at dead °f night, and despatched us to Tammertors. We remained in the Manchester of Finland for three davs, while arrangements were made for ‘us to cross the White lines. An aeroplane was supposed to drop a message announcing that a- small party bearing a Union Jack would leave the Red lines at a certain point to parley with the \\hites The message miscarried, but tjxe party advanced as stated, only to be met with a s hower of bullets. Fortunately no one was hurt, and when the flag was descried the firing ceased. The White commander facilitated the passage of the party to headquarters, where the details of transfer were arranged. Meantime the rest of us had been indulging in some rare tobogganing oil a half-mile run on the low hills just out of Tammerfors. The lakes in that regioin beautiful in summer, were frozen hard, and the whole countryside was covered with deep snow, Finnish Red Guards practised machine-gun firing out on the lakes. °

Our crossing of the lines i#as a ceremonial but picturesque affair. The train ran to a point twelve miles from Tammerfors; we removed our and left it alongside the railway tracks; the engine ’ gave three blasts of the whistle, and the irapu was liacbed away in the "direction it haj come. A few moments later a long string of ! sleighs, the first bearing a Red Cross flag; appeared around the beiid. We piled ourselves and baggage aboard, said good-bye to.our Red friends, who honoured us by presenting arms, and moved off north along the railway track, which had been torn in parts by explosives. It was a. brilliant, sunny day, ?ind at times we could see scouting parties of the rival sides moving rapidly across the landscape on skis. We passed deserted farmhouses and railway buildings, and hi an hour came to the White line. Our reception was courteous and friendly enough, but the sight of German Jaeger uniforms, worn by Finns who had served until the German forces, and an occasional Iron Cross, prevented that cordiality that had marked our intercourse with the Reds. Our treatment, however, lacked nothing in the way of generosity. Having partaken of that porridge meal ’and milk to which Nurmi attributes bis success in. the athletic field, we hoarded another train, and .sped on our way north. Late at night we sußßed with General Mannerheim and his officers at headquarters, and the last I saw of Finland was on the follow ing morning when we glided down her shores on sleighs and crossed the frozen Torneo River into;happy Sweden, rfree frqip w a r apd revolution