FINLAND PRAISED

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21035, 10 February 1940, Page 7

FINLAND PRAISED

ARMY’S EFFICIENCY SIR W. CITRINE’S VIEWS SOVIET MORALE WEAK (Omcial Wireless) (Received Feb. 10, 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Feb. 9 Giving his impression of his recent visit to Finland to journalists, Sir Walter Citrine, the Labour Leader, said: “It is in the serious interest of this country and the world as a whole that a very considerably larger amount of assistance should be forthcoming for Finland from this country.”

He paid tribute to the efficiency of the Finnish army, both the personnel and organisation, stating the

protective precautions were the finest he had ever seen.

Speaking of the Russians, he thought their morale extraordinarily bad, and said: “They don’t like the war and don’t know what it is about.” Conversations with Russian prisoners, Sir Walter said, revealed that in many cases machineguns were used to urged the men into battle, and commissars told them that the families of men who surrendered would be shot. The doubts he had as to the numbers of Russian losses had been dispelled by the number of prisoners he had seen and the quantity of captured material he had inspected. He added: “I think Russia has supplied the Finns with more arms than any other country.”

Sir Walter Citrine expressed the opinion that the next six or eight weeks would indicate which way the war would go, but he emohasised that the Finns could not hold out indefinitely without all possible assistance.