"Brazen Provocation"

An indignant editorial in the Comintern newsorgan Pravda ("Truth") usually denotes the Soviet Government's extreme annoyance, one in the Government-owned paper Izvestia ("News") indicates growing impatience, an official protest demonstrates complete exasperation.

After almost a month of ineffectual grumbling, early this week the Kremlin got so mad at Finland that in the space of 24 hours the Pravda degree was reached and passed, the Izvestia stage was skipped and the white heat of the official protest had arrived.

Pravda's vituperation was based on a speech made by Finnish Premier Aimo Cajander in Helsinki in which the Premier advised Finns to plow their fields with their rifles to their shoulders. According to the Russians, the Premier also spoke kindly of how Tsars Alexander I and II had respected Finnish rights and compared the Soviet Union's aggressive policy unfavorably with the Tsars'.

Pravda's masters of invective foamed at the mouth. In an editorial labeled "Buffoon in the Post of Premier," Premier Cajander, head of the Government of a "friendly" State, became a "clown, crowing rooster, squirming grass-snake, marionette; small beast of prey without sharp teeth and strength but having a cunning lust." The 60-year-old Premier, a schoolteacher's son, a forestry expert and middle-of-the-road Progressive in politics, was accused of "standing on his head, talking upside down, smearing crocodile tears over his dirty face." If Premier Cajander did not watch out, Pravda hinted, he would find himself in the company of onetime President Ignacy Moscicki and onetime Foreign Minister Josef Beck of Poland.

Frontier Incident. This editorial was strongly reminiscent of a similar one directed at Poland's rulers and printed 48 hours before the Red Army marched into Eastern Poland in September. Reports from the Finnish-Russian frontier the next day were timed to give it further significance.

At 3:45 p.m., the Soviet Government announced, Finnish troops suddenly opened artillery fire on Soviet troops stationed near Mainil, on the Karelian Isthmus, where Finns have their strongest fortifications. Four Red Army soldiers were killed, nine wounded. That was all Soviet Premier-Foreign Commissar Viacheslav Molotov needed to call in Finnish Ambassador Baron Aarno Armas Yrjo-Koskinen and hand him a note.

Declaring that the border incident was a "provocational shelling," Comrade Molotov asserted that the "concentration of Finnish troops near Leningrad not only creates a menace to Leningrad, but is, in fact, a hostile act against the U.S.S.R. . .. Therefore, the Soviet Government.. . proposes that the Government of Finland withdraw its troops without delay 20 to 25 kilometers (twelve to 15 miles) farther from the border of the Karelian Isthmus, thus preventing the possibility of a repeated provocation. Accept, Mr. Minister, the assurance of my perfect respect. . . ."

Fiction. The frontier incident was news to the Finnish Government. Border outposts were telephoned; the only noise reported on the frontier was that of Russian soldiers practicing trench-mortar firing and hand-grenade throwing. President of Finland's National Defense Council Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim toured the border that day and heard of no firing. A Finnish Government spokesman concluded that the entire incident was "completely untrue." At Helsinki the Government had no intention of ordering troops to retire from a frontier fairly jammed with Red Army contingents. To withdraw from back of their fortified line would be something like the French, on the Western Front, evacuating the Maginot Line.

Meanwhile, inside Russia the threats came thicker & faster. Unlike anything so far seen on either side of World War II, students and workers staged great popular demonstrations in favor of war, demanding stern action against the "Finnish militarists." Moscow troops even got together and handed out statements declaring that there was a "limit to patience" and asking the Government to "bridle the [Finnish] provocateurs of war." Foreign newsmen were allowed to send out reports of huge concentrations of Soviet troops in the Leningrad district which, it was said, were ready for action. The Moscow radio called upon the Finnish people to overthrow their government and "escape the fate of Poland."

All appearances indicated that now that Finland's lakes were frozen solid enough to support Army movements, Dictator Joseph Stalin meant to have a Finnish war--unless he was playing a gigantic game of bluff to the very end. Whether bluffing or not, the Finns took no chances. They closed most of the channels leading into the port of Helsinki preparatory to mining, and the little Army on the Karelian Isthmus braced itself against an increasingly probable attack.

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