NEWS OF THE WEEK THE greatest danger to Finland during
the last week has I been in the south-east, in the region north and south-west of Lake Ladoga. Here the Russian lines of communications are comparatively short, and it is possible, as it is not further north, to concentrate immense forces of men and keep them supplied and reinforced. The attack on the Mannerheim line was on the large scale, with full artillery preparation, but it has been stopped with great slaughter. But probably it was the attack to the north of Lake Ladoga which was intended to be decisive ; a break-through there would have taken the Mannerheim defenders in the rear. Up to the time of writing this offensive, constantly pressed, has also been a costly failure, but it is not clear whether it has yet spent itself, or whether more battalions of the picked troops now available are to be thrown into the attack. On the fronts further north it is the Russian troops which are on the defensive. A force south-west of Salla almost surrounded, and with snow-bound roads behind it, is dependent for food supplies on parcels dropped from aeroplanes. The air war on the civilian population has been intensified during the week, and still larger numbers of planes have flown over towns and villages in the interior. But even in the air the Finns, with foreign support, have been able to hit back, and have dropped bombs on Kronstadt and on air-bases in Estonia. Fighter planes are their most urgent need.
