Hostile Finland
The breach of diplomatic relations with Finland is to be regretted on many grounds. Friendship between that country and our own has been traditional, and the step taken at Helsinki is an ill requital for the sympathy extended, and the material help afforded, to the Finns when they were attacked by Russia in 1939. No doubt the step is logical. We can hardly remain on normal terms with a State which is engaged in active warfare with our Ally. But there was a certain con- venience in retaining a British Minister in so serviceable a listening-post as Helsinki, and we should probably have allowed that rather anomalous arrangement to continue if Finland's German masters had not compelled her to bring it to an end. Up to a point Finland can claim that she is acting under duress, but the efforts she has made to preserve her neutrality are not particularly impressive, and she is at present not merely stand- ing on the defensive but actively invading Russia. The Nazis have assured their Finnish satellites that their territorial claims will receive generous recognition when the Nazi victory has been achieved. Finland, after all that has happened, can hardly hope for much British sympathy in the face of possible Russian claims after the Nazi defeat has been consummated. If the Finns had known how effective Russian resistance to Hitler would be they might have made a different choice.
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