NEUTRAL NATIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20950, 1 November 1939, Page 10

NEUTRAL NATIONS

PROBLEMS OF FINLAND STUDY OF DEMOCRACIES “The Smaller Democracies,” by Sir E. D. Simon, is a study of democracy, not as an ideal but as a practical reality in the social and political life of several of the world’s most enlightened communities. Sir E. D. Simon believes that the maintenance and strengthening of democracy is the most urgent question which the world has to face. In order to study democracy the author decided to visit some of the smaller countries and report what he learned at first hand. In Switzerland was a country in which minorities are the majority. Yet the Germans, French and Italians who form the State live together in peace and goodwill, strong to preserve their independence, careful not to intrude upon the independence of others. Denmark provided a lesson in what can be achieved under the cooperative system. Here were 200,000 small farmers living contentedly and well under a new owner-co-operator farming plan “at once the most democratic and the most efficient in the world.” Threat to System The author moved on to Finland, a democracy in the making—an today facing the greatest threat to her evolving system. Where the Scandinavian group has been able to develop in peace, Finland has been a warring ground for hungry Powers. After 600 years united with Sweden, Finland was seized by Russia in 1808. During the nineteenth century, however, there was a gradual growth of Finnish national sentiment and culture, and the Finns moved strongly for independence when Russia became engaged with Japan some 30 years ago. As a consequence of “one of the few really general strikes in history,” Finland secured a democratic constitution. It was the first country in Europe to grant women’s suffrage. The Russians, as overlords, refused to allow full operation of. the constitution, however, and it was not until the Russian revolution that the little State obtained real independence. In a brief civil war the “Whites”—the organised middle classes—with the assistance of Germany, triumphed over the Moscow-assisted Reds, and a parliamentary regime was introduced. Under what has generally been a middle-way administration disrupted by a brief Fascist reign in 1930, the Finns have provided holdings fcr the tenant-farmers and the landless. Today, with a population of 3,800,000, Finland contains 285,000 separate farms, the great bulk of them owned by the people who work them, and the majority under 25 acres in extent. Farm'industry is in many phases co-operative, and agricultural production has risen almost sensationally. Secondary industry has prospered, wood and its products forming the main body of exports. Collective bargaining is growing in strength, though unionism remains weak, but the consumers’ co-operative movement is a vital organisation which has controlled price levels and allowed the country a good standard of living in spite of low earnings. The culture of the Finns, notwithstanding centuries of invasion and conquest, is remarkably high. Its contemnorary contribution to music and agriculture is symptomatic, it would appear, of a standard of culture generally of a distinctive order. Old Hatreds Forgotten Of all Soviet Russia’s neighbours, none enjoys so high a degree of political liberty as Finland, and the author concludes: “Experienced public men of different parties with whom I discussed the matter were of opinion that Finland was firmly set on the path of democracy and that if she could be left alone for the next 10 years secure both from foreign aggression and from too much foreign propaganda, it could be regarded as a reasonable certainty that old hatreds would be forgotten, and that Finland would steadily work towards a really progressive and tolerant democracy.”