"TRIUMPH OF WRONG”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 March 1940, Page 5

"TRIUMPH OF WRONG”

SPEECHES IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS DARK PAGE IN HISTORY WRITTEN. SARCASTIC REFERENCES TO SOVIET. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON; March 13. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, made a statement in the House of Lords on the Finnish peace similar to Mr Chamberlain’s. The Labour peer, Lord Snell, said: “Your Lordships will have heard the statement with mixed feelings—first, a feeling of satisfaction that the physical agony of a small and almost miraculous little people has now ended, and secondly with regret that _ the spiritual injuries they have received will endure, and that right once more has been defeated and wrong has once more triumphed in the world. “As far as the Finns are concerned, they make take comfort in the sympathy of all the free peoples of the world. They have done all that bravery . and endurance could do. They have set a new standard of resistance against overwhelming odds and written a page of history that will be read with .wonder through generations yet to come. We can only acknowledge and admire their indomitable courage and grieve with them in their defeat. “It must be a proud day for the Russian Empire,” continued Lord Snell, sarcastically, “with their 180,COO.OOO people, to celebrate the success of their attack upon a population which is less than that residing within the area of the London County Council. “I will not comment on the other Scandinavian nations, but I feel sure that if their own trial comes the even.ts of recent weeks and months will not be forgotten.” NO POLITICAL TERMS Lord Samuel found consolatory satisfaction in the fact that the Soviet had been unable to impose any political terms on Finland. “The claim that

Hie workers of Finland wore only two eager to welcome the Soviet intervention,” he said, “has been refuted by the gallantry of the Finns themselves, who inflicted appalling losses upon the Russians. “M. Tanner this afternoon, according to reports just received, attributed the disaster which has fallen on his country to the decisions of Sweden and Norway not to permit the passage of troops of the Allies. It is not for us to criticise or even to comment upon those decisions. Those countries know better than anyone else what were the limitations imposed by their own situation. “Sweden and Norway having reached those decisions, it would not have been possible for Britain or France to have overridden them. To have proceeded in the face of the protests of Sweden and Norway would have been a gross breach of their neutrality and a clear infraction of international law.” PUPPET LEADER REPORTED EXECUTION. COPENHAGEN, March 14. The Helsinki correspondent of the “Ekstrabladet” states that M. Kuusinen, the leader of the Finnish puppet Government, which was constituted by Russia at the beginning of the war, is reported to have been executed for giving Hie Kremlin misleading information on the conditions in Finland before the hostilities. TREATY RAILWAY HELSINKI, March 14. The Foreign Minister, M. Tanner, said that the railway across Finland from Kandalaksha to Sweden (which, under the terms of the Moscow pact, is to be built this year by the joint signatories), will remain entirely Finnish. CAPTURE OF VIBORG CLAIMED BY RUSSIANS. MOSCOW, March 14. The last war communique claims that Viborg was captured five hours before the armistice.