A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
AQUESTION which many people are rightly asking is, what amount of help is Finland receiving from abroad, and particularly from Great Britain. There are many reasons why the question cannot be fully answered. States whith retain diplomatic relations with Russia prefer to help Finland unobtrusively, rather than ostentatiously, though since Russia declares she is not at war with Finland she can hardly regard Finland's friends as her foes. But all supplies have to go through Sweden, and the Swedish Government is anxious about proprieties, though the Swedish people is not. Sweden herself is helping considerably. Writing in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, Mr. George Steer, who is at present in Scandinavia, spoke of Sweden's 10,000 volunteers —which is a considerably larger figure than I had heard mentioned before. Other volunteers in small numbers are reaching Finland from America, Italy, Norway and Great Britain ; the total is not formidable. In the matter of material, particularly aeroplanes and small arms ammunition, It may be taken that the help Great Britain is giving is, as the Prime Minister has said more than once, "substantial." After all, it means a good deal for us to release aeroplanes for Finland at all when we are straining every nerve to over- take Germany's lead. In addition to that we ensured rapid help to Finland at the outset in the matter of material by urging Sweden to send across the frontier everything she could spare, on the understanding that we would replace it all. And it will be found that we have helped Firand con- siderably in making purchases elsewhere. All this, of course, is no more than our proper duty as a member of the League.
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