T HE Finnish Parliament has rejected the peace terms offered by
NEWS OF THE WEEK
the Soviet Government, and on the shoulders of its members will fall responsibility for whatever lot may now be in store for the country. There will be no shred of sympathy for Finland anywhere outside the Axis States in the course she has decided to take. The United States has urged her to make peace ; Swedish opinion regards the Russian terms as perfectly reasonable ; and that view is taken by all but an inconsiderable minority here. Finland has nothing to gain and everything to lose by declining to make peace now. Germany's military situation, which means Finland's military situation, must get steadily worse, and Russia, having offered easy terms and seen them declined, is under no temptation to offer easy terms again. Her armies on the Finnish front have been quiescent for a long time, but no one can doubt that they possess the power to strike with deadly effect. Finland will have some day to seek peace again, but she will have paid a heavy price before then for refusing it now. Rumania, meanwhile, appears to be making some approaches to the Allies, though what credentials Prince Stirbey carries with him to Cairo is not clear. The desire of all rational Rumanians to get out of the war is intelligible enough, for Genera: Konyev's swift advance across the Bug has brought the Russian armies to within fifty miles of the Rumanian frontier. But Rumania is in a very different position from Finland. General Dietl's troops in the Petsamo area are no doubt a genuine difficulty for the Finns, but with Russian help they could be dealt with. All Rumania is in the grip of the Germans, who must defend the Ploesti oil-fields at all costs. Rumania therefore seems destined to be a battle-ground, but the value to the Germans of a country the great majority of whose inhabitants want surrender must be limited. The Rumanians have now to pay the price of deciding to gamble on a German victory.
