FINNS HARD PRESSED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 February 1940, Page 5

FINNS HARD PRESSED

CANNOT HOLD OUT FOR EVER MOVING APPEAL BY MINISTER IN LONDON. NEED OF CONTINUOUS HELP. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 23. Speaking at a luncheon given in his honour at the English-speaking Union yesterday, the Finnish Minister in London, Dr Gripenburg, said: “We are not blind to the fact that we cannot withstand the Soviet onslaught for ever. There will come a day when sheer weight of numbers in weapons and men may eventually overwhelm us. That is the reason why we need a continuous supply of war materials and some help in manpower.

“Grateful indeed are the people of my sorely stricken country for the help which is already coming from Great Britain. On behalf of my country I would like to express my thanks to all those Britishers who have volunteered to fight for Finland.

“At this moment we in Finland are defending some of the eternal values of mankind, and we appeal to all men and women who believe in honour, duty, dignity and courage.” The British Press has from the beginning followed the events in the Finnish Avar with the greatest interest, and universally has commended the heroism of the Finnish troops and civilians in their desperate struggle for life. The “Manchester Guardian” today says: “If Russia succeeds, not only will the freedom of Finland—a country Avhich the Comintern organ only last July acclaimed as standing ‘for freedom and democracy against Fascism’— be extinguished in blood, but the Allies will be exposed again as helpless to save another victim of violence. At the same time, it will become even more clear that Stalin has set his foot on the road of imperialistic conquest. The Finnish war cannot be regarded purely by itself. Already it is much more than an individual struggle of a little people against a great oppressor.” “The Guardian” proceeds to analyse sympathetically the difficulties of the Scandinavian Powers, and observes: “The Scandinavians may be exaggerating the danger. There are reasons why Germany should think thrice before invading them. To take only one. Swedish supplies of iron ore which are now flowing down the Norwegian coast are indispensable to Germany.” The newspaper concludes: “We and the French are bound by every consideration to the cause for which we wage war to help the Finns to the utmost of our power, just as are other countries which have accepted the same international obligations. The Swedes—and the Norwegians, though less is heard of them—have also to consider that in giving the utmost voluntary aid to Finland they are keeping a probable enemy from their own hearth.”

ACTION ADVOCATED

LEAD TO SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES. ALLIED TRADE UNIONS DENOUNCE SOVIET. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, February 24. In the speech in which he advocated allied assistance to Finland, the former Secretary of State for War (Mr L. Hore-Belisha) suggested that the spectacle of Britain and France bringing substantial aid to Finland would banish the fear—which at present was causing a withholding of support for Finland by the other Scandinavian nations —of incurring the German displeasure which they alone would be left to face. Speaking of Finland in an address today, the Liberal Leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair, said: “The Government has determined that it must not allow the fate of Czechoslovakia and Poland to overtake the gallant little country of Finland.” NAZI COMMUNISM. The Anglo-French Trade Union Committee has issued a communique urging immediate aid for Finland. The Allied Trade Union view of the Russian-German alliance may be gathered from an article entitled, “The Measure is Full. Down with Nazi Communism!’ appearing in a recent number of the International Transport Workers’ Journal, which states: “Sensible, experienced trade unionists have turned in disgust from the lies, slander misrepresentations and virulencelwhich form the main feature of the Communist agitation, and though they appear confirmed to the querulous, the workers in the countries with a seasoned trade union tradition have proved to be possessed of too much common sense to be susceptible to the fallacies called Communist tactics.” The article goes on to describe the Soviet rulers’ pact with Germany as a “horrible betrayal of the cause of peace and struggle against German National Socialism and Imperialism. They are negotiating on the Judas reward they are to receive for the betrayal from the hands of Hitler.

“They resolved to feed their imperialist lust for the neighbouring small countries by invading Poland. They promised to supply Germany with materials and foodstuffs for the prosecution of the war, thus supplying German National Socialism with weapons for murdering British and French workers.

“With this regime all honest working independent trade union movements have finished now and always. May the Russian workers come to realise the horrible manner in which the banner of Socialism has been soiled by their rulers. That will be the end of Stalin's reign of terror. "They have called us Social Fascists; they the Nazi Communists.” ALLIED WORKERS FINLAND’S URGENT NEED OF HELP. AGREEMENT ON WAR AIMS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) RUGBY. February 25. The urgent necessity for aid to Fin-

land was the subject of a resolution issued by the Anglo-French Trade Union Council, at the end of its third meeting in Paris yesterday. The Councilagreed on the aims pursued in the present war —the defence of freedom and world civilisation. “With these aims in mind,” the Council stated, “the principles underlying democracy must not only be safeguarded but even extended, more particularly by the attainment of economic democracy, which implies equa 1 status for workers' and employers' or ganisations. It affirms the complete anc’ indestructible unity of British anc’ French workers, on the basis of the autonomy of both movements.”