29 SEPTEMBER 1944, Page 12

FINLAND AND THE FUTURE

observe that you suggest that the acting Finnish Prime Minister's broadcast to his people drew a gloomy picture of the situation, which his hearers who are better informed, will know is unjustified. I do not find that this point of view—though comforting to British readers—is shared by correspondents of mine in Scandinavia. From what they write I should gather that the Prime Minister was endeavouring to en- courage a people profoundly convinced that the outlook is grim indeed as they contemplate all that has happened, and the, terms that they understand much better than people in England can. If he had not recognised these facts, the acting Prime Minister's attempt to brace his countrymen to face the future with the same courage with which they have resisted aggression, and tried to win back what the powerful aggressor had snatched from them, would have fallen on deaf ears, and been rejected as futile optimism.

My correspondents regard the notion, popular in the British Press, that the Finns have been kept in the dark, as an illusion. Of course, in war time many aspects of importance are shrouded in mystery. We have not exactly lived in a blaze of light in this country during the last two years. Dispassionate English observers in Sweden maintain that the Finnish public were kept fully informed of war news from all fronts, and that their radio has always been remarkably impartial and objective. This latter point must often have struck people in this coun-

try who had access to the Finnish wireless. Swedish periodicals and papers have circulated freely in Finland. Papers like Hufoudstadsbladet and the Abo Ljnderrattelser based their information largely on the B.B.C. General Eisenhower's proclamation to the people of France, and King George's speech of June 6th, were printed in full.

The modifications of the Russian terms may not have been uncon- nected with the fact that in fact the Finns had not been conquered. But it is easy to see why to Finnish people the modifications do not seem very substantial. An indemnity of £75,000,000 may well seem crippling to a population of under four million people, whose annual income before the war was roughly L24,0oo,o0o, especially when it is accompanied by the deprivation of the mines at Petsamo and the rich province of Carelia. Moreover, the material resources of the Finns have been shat- tered by years of war fought in defence of their homeland and its independence ; the people are undernourished and their manpower heavily depleted. This gallant, ill-used, intelligent, democratic people know that the future look§ gloomy. But there is one gleam of light. The association of Great Britain with the peace terms holds out to the Finns a hope that, this time, they will be adhered to, and that the limit of their losses has been reached, in a war ostensibly inspired by the ideal of the liberation of the victims of aggression. By this association we undertake a responsibility which we must not shirk. Another Munich

means another Prague.—Yours truly, A. S. DUNCAN-JONES. The Deanery, Chichester.