ADJUSTMENT IN THE BALTIC.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 March 1940, Page 4

ADJUSTMENT IN THE BALTIC.

its face value, the account given by a Swedish Foreign Office spokesman, and reported in one of yesterday’s cablegrams, of the position reached in. the Baltic is somewhat extraordinary. According to the spokesman, Russia has withdrawn her objection to the refortifiea I ion (by Finland) ol the Aaland Islands, commanding the entrance to the (lull' ol Bothnia, has given a formal diplomatic promise that she has no further territorial demands in. north-west Europe and lias requested the earliest re-establishment of friendly relations. lii addition, the Swedish spokesman stated that Germany had formally threatened to intervene if Sweden allowed the passage of Allied forces to Finland and declared that Sweden took maximum risks lo assist Finland, “exhausting all the Army reserves of munitions and gnus and depleting the civilian reserves of food, petrol and coal.”

There is, of course, a good deal, to be said for Sweden’s point of vie’w, and particularly for her fear that she might become a. battleground for contending foreign armies if she allowed Allied troops to pass through her territory to Finland. That apart, however, the situation now reached has its remarkable peculiarities. Il is; clear that, by her threat lo Sweden, Germany greatly assisted Russia lo overcome I lie resistance of the Finns. Assuming, however, that the Soviet is content to stabilise the situation as it now stands and doos not intend to engage in further aggression againsl Finland or that country’s Scandinavian neighbours, the principal effect of the German assistance thus rendered has been to enable Russia to attain a dominant position in the Baltic as againsl Germany.

Whether Soviet promises like those now reported to Sweden and Finland are worth any more than those Hitler has so Ireely made and broken remains, of course, to be tested by linn 1 and events. It is fairly obvious in any ease that it Finland and the Scandinavian States are to know security in time to i-oiik*. that• security must be established on a collective basis, with adequate international backing. The present position is that Finland, having been helped generously bid inefleeli vely by her Scandinavian neighbours, and having been eul oh by these same neighbours from effective Allied help, has been weakened desperately. At the same time, as a result of the defeat of Finland, her Scandinavian neighbours are exposed dangerously lo attack. In spite of the assurances now offered by the Soviet, the position of Finland and her neighbours manifestly is insecure. 11. can lie made secure only in the conditions of international la'w and justice the Allies are lighting to establish.