Finland Says No

Finland last week made official her refusal to heed U.S. demands that she stop fighting Russia (TIME, Nov. 10). President Risto Ryti's Government was exceedingly polite, as befitted a nation writing to an old friend, but as the note was delivered to Secretary of State Cordell Hull the Finnish staff was planning new attacks on a new U.S. friend, Russia.

Finland had made a hard choice. It was not unprecedented in a war in which nations choose sides out of national interest rather than because of old friendships. The U.S. would probably continue to urge Britain to withhold a declaration of war, not so much because of friendship as because there is still a chance that Finland may quit the war when she has achieved her objectives: a boundary (TIME, Nov. 10) that will provide a good defense line in case of future Russian attack. If Finland does not quit and Germany loses the war, Finland must settle with Russia. If Germany wins, Finland must settle with Germany. Warned the London Times:

"If Germany, with [the Finns'] help, should win the war, Germany would be as dominant in Scandinavia as in the rest of Europe, and there would be an end to the democratic peasant republic which has hitherto enjoyed the world's respect and sympathy."

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