FINLAND’S STRUGGLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19816, 6 December 1919, Page 2

FINLAND’S STRUGGLE.

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE. There is ft country where women are in Parliament, practise as lawyers, and sit as judges (writes the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne “ Herald ”). No; it is not Australia, its seen in the pre-election vision of a politician. It is just it. common everyday country that goes to picture allows and football matches. But Mr K. Naulkor, Consul-General for Finland, can toll you more about it than that. “In Finland,” he says, “we are very proud of our education system. As well as ensuring scarcely any illiterates in the country, we insist that boys and girls, no matter how high they go in their studies, shall be taught together. Consequently it. did not seem a very long step when full equality for women was first suggested.’’ Moreover, as well as the men recognising women as their equal, the women seem quite conscious of their abilities themselves. THE FASHIONABLE COLOUR. Thus in the Red Revolution, Mr Naukler tells us, women fought on both sides. “They were the fiercest fighters of them all,’’ he says. But he has one regret. The feminine mind favoured most of the Red ideas. “ The Reds had far more women fighting for them than the Whites,” he says. For all that, the Whites won v but only after a hard fight, and after they had got outside help. But let Mr Naukler tell the story of the Revolu-tion-how it began, and how it. ended. A BIT BOTH WAYS. Finland felt surprised when she saw Russia' go to Serbia’s aid in 19U. Her hopes became mixed when war was declared. She wanted to see Russia beaten, and she did not want Germany to win. She prayed for an Allied vietory, but Russia was to be left out of it, In this spirit 4000 Finns joined the German army, but they were not to be used on the western front—only against Russia. Finland saw no hope of its strange mixed prayer being answered till March, 1917. Then the Russian revolution whirled the oppressor out of the war. But Finland was to have its own revolt. Officers were murdered in barracks, soldiers and workers’ councils were formed, and a Socialist Government got into power. But the country woe marching. INDEPENDENCE! On December 6, 1917, it declared its j independence—an act at once recognised by the Russian Bolshevik Government. But Lenin end Trotsky had planned their world revolution. Finland was the nearest country to see 1 how it . would work, and if was swompI ed with Russian trobps. and prop a- | ganda, “.Direct action” was advocat- | ed every where, workers bore arms and j joined the Red Guards. ] “Fighting started everywhere,” says j Air Naukler. “ Lenin and Trotsky i sent to the Reds men, money and , artillery. The Whites bad to arms, | no artillery, but they had General Alanj nerheim. A band of peasants, armed j with sticks, foil on the troop of Red J Guards in the north and disarmed J them. That was where the Whites " got their first weapons from. 3| “ The Swedish Government refused to allow arms that we had purchased ' u to be sent across to us. So wo had [0 to turn_ to Germany. We got rifles a at >d artillery, but only for enormous p, trade_ concessions. Our countrymen n) who had joined the German army came and joined ithe Whites. In a few h] months the Rods'were’defeated, 80,000 IK of them taken prisoner, and tlioir equipment in our hands, tr _ “ But our liberation from the Red $ Terror was not ' without a price. Cl towns and villages were burnt, and E thousands of people tortured and killed. j“ And we were also paying a , price to Kj Germany. The country was practically nj controlled from Berlin, which, just beH fore the armistice, nominated Friedrich id Earl of Hessen as our King. But he S , DoVer reigned, and General Mannerly heim, who had been dismissed from the In arms because of his hostility to anyC thing German, took tho leadership. ’’ ja THE man next door. D T'thlftnd still has a fear of Russia. nJ "J or e than anything she dreads Bol{3 shevik supremacy. “Wo will never fd b ‘-eatho freely os long as Petrograd Uj stands as the Bolshevik capital,” he ft says. “It is too close for us to feel te Beautiful as the city itself is, te ?" er f he bo -’’egrets in Finland K if the Bolsheviks toppled it all into Oj “he river. The Russian capital should K be OiMy so that the GovJ eminent might watch the frontiers was “j U ever placed at Petrograd. rd ambition i 3 to make a federS atl ° n the Finnish people on the |d m U st , a ? d of tlie Gulf of Finland. Ip J nat dona if we can enter into a dote tensive alliance with the three Scandi[H navian nations, we need fear none of jj our old enemies.”