FINLAND REFUSES TO BE ALARMED

Southland Times, Issue 23946, 12 October 1939, Page 5

FINLAND REFUSES TO BE ALARMED

Will Not Bow To The Foreign Tyrant •» GRAVITY OF SITUATION ADMITTED (United Press Association—Telegraph Copyright) (Received October 11, 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, October 11. Well-informed circles in Helsinki refuse to be alarmed in spite of the removal of one-fourth of the inhabitants on Wednesday and one-fourth on Thursday, besides the evacuation of Wiborg, Tammerfors and Aabo. This confidence may be due to reports that Russian troops are gradually withdrawing from the Latvian frontier. In the meantime, six long trains left Helsinki for the north with 10,000 civilians, while buses crowded with women and children are also departing.

Finland maintains its vow .that it will not bow to the foreign tyrant.

It is generally recognized that the Moscow negotiations are a problem not only for Finland, hut for the entire north, because if the Soviet makes unacceptable demands on Finland, she cannot, nor can her associates, expect assistance from the Great Powers..

The Finnish Minister of the Interior (M. Kekkonen) emphasized the gravity of the situation and admitted that Finland was not actually mobilized, but he emphasized the importance of such military measures as Finland had taken because they were in consequence of the need to maintain Finnish integrity throughout the Moscow negotiations, especially as it is felt that Britain does not desire neutral Russia to side with Germany.