CRISIS IN FINLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25458, 12 February 1944, Page 5

CRISIS IN FINLAND

RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA OVERTURES PROBABLE (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 10. The Finnish Commander-in-Chief, Field-Marshal Mannerheinp visited the President, Dr Ryti, and is believed to have urged the necessity for making overtures to Russia, says the Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. A Cabinet reshuffle, excluding the Acting Prime Minister, M. Tanner, who has for a long time been identified with the extreme anti-Russians, would have to precede such a move. Both the left wing and the Social Democrat members of the Opposition, the correspondent adds, are alarmed

over the recent developments on the Leningrad front, and have been seeking Marshal Mannerheim’s intervention, probably through his personal representative at Helsinki, General Kekoni, who is believed to be in favour of the Allies. The Finnish radio to-day broadcast the United States warning to Finland, advising that the Finnish Government should break the German alliance, and added that the advice would be seriously studied by all responsible Finnish circles. The Moscow paper Red Star said: “ The Finnish rulers have tried to determine their strategical frontiers. Now the Red Army will determine them. The Red Army is capable of defending the Soviet frontiers in the region of Helsinki.”