RUSSIA AND THE WAR
SIR,—A. K. Watson appears to justify Russia's aggression against Finland and elsewhere on the grounds that she was not really attacking
Finland but Germany. This may have seemed an adequate reason to Russia, but one could hardly expect the Finns to regard it in the same light. Similarly, Hitler may now be saying that he is not
really attacking Russia, but Great Britain. It is essential for him to have the resources of Russia in order to protect himself from the British blockade. If only the Russians had been reasonable and understood this he would not have had to attack them. Therefore it is really Great Britain's fault. To justify aggression when it happens to agree with one's own political or any other view-point is the thin end of the wedge. For who is to be the final judge as to which aggression is, and which is not, justified? The only hope for any sort of international law and order is for all aggression, as such, to be unequivocally condemned. '
As for the wisdom of Russia's attack upon Finland, simply from the point of view of self-interest, it is very questionable. It automatically made the Finns and the Swedes and, until they Were brutally disillusioned, the Norwegians regard Russia rather than Germany as their greatest menace. And it means that now Russia has an additional enemy to contend with instead of having at least (presuming that Germany would have in any case violated Finnish territory) a friendly though non-combatant neighbour, doing all it ceuld to hinder the Germans, and in all probability (having regard to the sturdy independence of the Finnishtpeople) an extremely useful
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