"Active Neutrality!"

All European countries, neutrals not excepted, were on short rations at the close of World War I, and in 1919 hungry Finland bought $9,000,000 worth of U. S. food. In 1923, when representatives of the Great Powers started coming to Washington to make refunding agreements, Finland was first to sign up and every year since has punctually sent up to $390,000 to Washington in interest and amortization. Finland in the role of the U. S.'s only non-welshing "war debtor" so impressed the U. S. Congress that in 1935 it voted to spend $300,000 on constructing at Helsinki, the Finnish capital, a splendiferous U. S. Legation of 100% Finnish materials erected by 100% Finnish labor.

Last week all this U. S.-Finnish amity spectacularly came home to roost when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, having turned a deaf ear to pleas that he intervene for peace between Germany and the Allies, and having let Russia invade Poland and hog-tie Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania without protest (TIME, Sept. 25, et seq.), vigorously bestirred himself lest Joseph Stalin crack down with undue harshness upon Finland. In Washington, if nowhere else in the U. S., Finland is the national baby of 1939 that has taken the place of 1914 Baby Belgium.

Mobilization & Mannerheim. Finnish President Kyoesti Kallio and Premier Aimo Cajander took hard-headed measures of preparation for actual war with the Soviet Union, should it be forced upon them, while at the same time behaving with utmost politeness to Joseph Stalin, showing complete readiness to cooperate in friendship with Russia if the Bolsheviks want to be sincerely friendly.

All during the week children, mothers, the sick and aged were rapidly evacuated from Helsinki (see map) until this capital of 300,000 was half empty. Viipuri was also evacuated and blacked out nightly to match Helsinki, as though Soviet bombing raids were expected. A fleet of 21 Soviet planes was seen roaring over the Gulf of Finland, with Soviet warships cruising just outside Finnish territorial waters, and President Kallio promptly closed all Finnish ports in the Gulf. The entire Finnish merchant marine--Finland has the largest fleet of sailing ships of any nation--was ordered to take refuge away from the Gulf in ports opposite Sweden.

Meanwhile, Finland's efficient Army--every Finnish male receives more than two years' military training beginning at 21 and remains in the Reserve or the Territorial Army up to his 52nd year--was brought up to a strength of 300,000 last week. Its Commander in Chief, Lieut. General Hugo Viktor Osterman, personally took the field on the Soviet frontier of Finland, a frontier of such numberless lakes, forests and marshes that if Russia should choose to strike with mechanized forces these would have to roll directly up from Leningrad into the narrow, flat Finnish terrain between the Gulf and Lake Laatokka, Europe's largest lake. On this strategic gateway Finland has massed her only heavy fortifications, concrete pillbox forts and tank traps which Finnish soldiers last week worked furiously to strengthen.

Every Finn looked not so much to General Osterman as to the greatest of living Finnish commanders, Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, 72, now National Defense Council President, who remained quietly at Helsinki. In the sporadic fighting between the Finnish Army and the Red Army in the months just after the Russian Revolution Baron Mannerheim "saved Finland," and for a time he was Regent when it was not yet sure that the country would become a Republic. In the 19th Century Finland was a Grand Duchy with the Tsar of Russia as its Grand Duke, and as a young man Baron Mannerheim fought as a Tsarist officer in the Russo-Japanese war, later was a member of Tsar Nicholas II's personal retinue. His continued prominence in Finland is the measure of its firm anti-Bolshevism. In August of this year Baron Mannerheim attended the luncheon given by Governor of the Bank of Finland Risto Ryti for vacationing U. S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. whose "purely social" visit to Helsinki included a tour of Finnish cooperative stores and modernistic workmen's flats.

"Modern neutrality is active neutrality," declared Finnish Foreign Minister Eljas Erkko in Helsinki. "If a neutral cannot defend itself against threats then it no longer is neutral and independent. . . . I am convinced that the Russian Government does not want anything to happen any more than we do."

Soviet Demands. The war-ready Finns took pride in moving with snail-like slowness at the crack of Joseph Stalin's demand that they send a delegation to Moscow (TIME, Oct. 16). Instead of coming by air, as the panicky envoys of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have done, Finnish Chief Delegate Dr. Juho Kusti Paasikivi rolled comfortably into Moscow by train one morning. At 2:30 p.m. Soviet Premier Viacheslav Molotov received U. S. Ambassador Laurence A. Steinhardt who brought from President Roosevelt a personal message of "earnest hope that nothing may occur that would be calculated to affect injuriously the peaceful relations between Soviet Russia and Finland."

Ambassador Steinhardt left the Kremlin at 3:30 p.m. and one after another in bus-tied the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian ministers with similar notes expressing their Governments' "expectation that nothing will occur which would prevent Finland from continuing independently her neutral position." After this U. S.-Scandinavian buildup, the Finnish Delegation entered the Kremlin punctually at 5 p.m. and Dr. Paasikivi talked behind closed doors for 45 minutes with Dictator Stalin and Premier Molotov.

There were further Soviet-Finnish talks in the Kremlin on successive days, and German sources strove vigorously to create an impression that Russia was demanding the surrender to her by Finland of the highly strategic Aeland (to rhyme with Poland) Islands off the coast of Sweden--a demand which would menace all Scandinavia in case the Soviet Union meant to make of the Aelands a Red Navy and Red Air Force base. This German slant may have been inside dope, but Moscow correspondents could get no confirmation from either Russians or Finns. In Helsinki prominent Finns hinted that the Russian demands were more moderate: 1) Finland to cede to the Soviets three small islands near Kronstadt, the Soviet naval base defending Leningrad; 2) final abandonment by Finland and Sweden of their project of last spring to fortify the Aeland Islands and admission of Russia to the Finnish-Swedish Aeland Island Convention to assure permanent neutralization of the Aelands; 3) some form of alliance between Finland and the Soviet Union.

As Dr. Paasikivi left Russia for Helsinki this week (he was expected to return to Moscow in a few days), the chief fear of Finns was that Joseph Stalin had in mind an "alliance" which would make them Russia's vassals. In a broadcast from Helsinki spunky Finnish Foreign Minister Erkko flatly said that his country will make no arrangement with Russia "which would strengthen the security of one side at the expense of the other."

Since obviously Sweden has a vital interest in the negotiations, King Gustaf V invited the President of Finland, King Haakon VII of Norway and King Christian X of Denmark to meet him at Stockholm this week for a great Scandinavian deliberation as to what, if anything, can be done if Soviet Russia is now resolved to dominate the North Baltic as she already dominates the East Baltic. Not much, apparently. In Paris the word from Stockholm was that Sweden is not prepared to send any military aid to Finland in case of war with Russia.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.