BALTIC CONFERENCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 December 1939, Page 5

BALTIC CONFERENCES

AT OSLO AND TALLINN FATE OF NORTHERN EUROPE IN BALANCE. REPORTED GERMAN PRESSURE ON SWEDEN. LONDON. December 7. While Finland continues to resist the Russian steam-roller, the fate of the whole of Northern Europe rests in the hands of two conferences which are meeting simultaneously at Oslo and Tallinn. The Oslo conference consists of the Danish. Swedish and Norwegian Foreign Ministers. Despite the Russian warnings and Denmark’s declaration of strict neutrality, they are believed to have been discussing the possibility of non-military assistance for Finland, particularly through the League of Nations. Aller conferring, the Scandinavian Foreign Ministers issued a communique staling thal they have agreed to do their utmost through the League to inaugurate Russian-Finnish peace negotiations. and that they also discussed the effects of the Finnish war on the general situation. A host of alarming rumours and unconfirmed reports on the Oslo conference have provided an electric atmosphere. One report says thal Germany is insisting on Sweden revising her for eign policy with a view to closer collaboration with the Reich. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are represented at the Tallinn Conference. The Commander-inChiel’ of the Estonian army. General Laidoner, has been hurriedly summoned to Moscow because of Soviet nervousness about Estonian sympathy for Finland. The Copenhagen newspaper “Berlingske Tidende” savs the Soviet is demanding the immediate demobilisation of the Estonian army in order to remove the possibility of a rear attack on the Russian army.