A SCANDINAVIAN DECLARATION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1940, Page 4

A SCANDINAVIAN DECLARATION.

A -JOINT declaration of continued neutrality, made on behalf of their respective countries by the Foreign Ministers of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, probably is tantamount to a sentence of death on Finland. The declaration means not only that her Scandinavian neighbours arc refusing to make common cause with Finland,'but that they are closing the only door through which effective help could be given to her by the Allied Powers or any others disposed to go to her assistance. Ju deciding to remain neutral, Sweden and Norway are isolating Finland and leaving her at Russia’s mercy.

Tt is an ironical as well as a tragical state of affairs. The Swedes have themselves given a considerable amount of voluntary and unofficial help to Finland—if was stated some week’s ago that at least 25,000 Swedish volunteers were fighting in the Finnish ranks—and have urged other countries to add to the help thus rendered. There is increasing evidence, however, that voluntary help from all quarters is insufficient to enable the Finns to make head against the Russian Invasion. In those circumstances, the pious hope and desire expressed by the Scandinavian Ministers “that, the Russo-Finnish conflict as early as possible may be brought to a peaceful solution which will preserve Finland’s full independence” must be regarded as an empty platitude. None can be better aware than the Scandinavian Ministers that Finland is threatened imminently with national extinction, ft deepens the tragic irony of the situation that there is no assurance whatever that the invasion of Finland will not be followed up by a similar invasion of Sweden and Norway. Already the Soviet is officially denying the bombing of a Swedish town, although Sweden affirms that the fact of the bombing by Russian airmen is conclusively established.