Finland Sparring For Better Terms

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 53, 6 March 1944, Page 5

Finland Sparring For Better Terms

Received Simday, 8.50 p.m. LONDON, March 4. According to the Stockholm Dagens Nyheter’s Helsinki correspondent, the Finnish Parliament is reported to have authorised the Government to reject the Russian demands for the internment of German troops in Northern Finland and the restoration of the 1940 frontier, hut has requested the Government to continue negotiations. A Finnish Foreign Office spokesman declared that the Russians did not set a time limit for the Finnish answer. Commenting on the Russian-Finnisli peace negotiations, the Wilhelmstrassc spokesman (Dr. Schmidt) said: “The Russian conditions actually constitute unconditional surrender. The conditions are a clumsy manoeuvre to achieve the destruction of the Finnish Army and the occupation of Finland hy political fraud.” The Finnish radio, quoting the Helsinki newspaper Social Demokratti, said: “The conditions are not only heavy but even frightening. One wonders whether such conditions are compatible with the Atlantic Charter which the Russians also signed. The conditions do not offer us possibilities of leading the life of a free nation.” The Finnish radio also quoted Finnish official circles for the following statement: —“The Finnish Government regards the gathering of information about the chances of modifying Moscow’s peace conditions as its most immediate task. Nothing is known at the moment about tbe means the Government will use.”