above consists of an improved Valet self-stropping razor, strop and three blades in a hygienic-moulded case. It is a bargain.
While the Soviet forces have managed to penetrate the Mannerheim Line to a considerable extent, their success does not necessarily mean that they have made very great progress towards victory. The Finns, it is reported have established second and third lines of defence, and, judging from all that has happened in the past, should be able to give just as good an account of themselves as they have up to the present. It can safely be said that the comparatively small amount of progress which the Russian troops have made is wholly out of proportion to the enormous losses of men, and material which they have suffered, and, if the Finns continue to resist in the way they are now, ultimate Russian victory, if and when it comes, will have been paid for most dearly. No sum total of Russian losses has as yet been published, but assuming the occasional reports to be approximately correct Soviet losses most be reckoned in hundreds of thousands killed and wounded, and possibly as many as half a million. My. Winston Churchill in a recent broadcast described the Finnish resistance as "sublime" and a more appropriate word could not be found for the manner in which they are fighting in defence of their country against the most cynical aggression, and which cannot but arouse the greatest admiration and sympathy with the gallant little nation fighting against such grievous odds. From all that has happened during the past few days it is clear that the Russians are throwing more and more men into the field in an attempt to save their military face. With the advice of German experts they have made some headway, but with all their much vaunted strength the Russians have failed to make any very real impression upon the Finnish defence, which must be expected to become increasingly desperate as the fighting progresses. The world is witnessing much more than a heroic fight by a tiny nation against a gigantic one; it is seeing the triumph of moral quality over brutishness. It is only after three months of fighting that the Russians have been able to wrest some degree of success from the determined Finns, and any who believe that the latter are unlikely to continue their resistance much longer will most probably be disabused in the not too distant future.
The Soviet leaders for the past two or three weeks have been doing their utmost to bring this present campaign to an early conclusion. Their partner in crime, the Reich, desires the same thing as the only means of obtaining something out of Herr Hitler's immoral surrender of his oft-proclaimed principles. Troops have been rushed to the Finnish fronts from all parts of the Soviet Union, including it is reported those which were stationed along the Bessarabian border, and for the moment the pressure upon Rumania has been relaxed. That will in all probability prove to be but temporarily, but the fact that it has occurred provides an ample test of the demands which the resistance of the Finns has made upon the resources of the Russian military machine. Those resources for all practical purposes may be regarded as without limit, with the enormous manpower which Russia possesses, but the Finns have shown the Soviet army to be what it is, and justifies the belief that should Moscow contemplate military adventures elsewhere the possibilities of defeating them are more than a little rosy. It is a most lamentable fact that the pressure which Germany is bringing to bear upon the Scandinavian countries may sooner or later lead to the stoppage of assistance to the Finns. There are already suggestions current that Sweden may find herself obliged to prevent transit of men and war supplies to Finland, under threats of herself being involved in a struggle with Germany, being blackmailed into a form of neutrality which cannot but favour the aggressor nations. "There is stretched over the whole Scandinavian peninsula the shadow of menace to the independence of the peoples of Norway and Sweden, and it is to be feared that it will not be long before those two countries become in turn the victims of the predatory policies of Berlin and Moscow. That this Finnish campaign has relieved pressure on the Balkans is an important and interesting fact, for a breathing space is being provided in which earnest attempts are being made to improve relations between the whole of the Balkan States and bring about a state of affairs which may permit of their offering a combined resistance to any threat which may be made against them.
With the Allies and Turkey behind the Balkan Entente and the reported betterment of relations between Rumania and Bulgaria, it may be that both Germany and Russia will think a long time before taking overt action in south-east Europe. Italy may be expected to offer resistance should Russia seek to invade the Balkans, while should Germany do so the Allies may be expected to move in such a manner as would close one of the main avenues along which Germany must depend for much of the supplies she may hope ultimately to obtain from Russia. The establishment of strong Allied forces in the Near East is sufficient that they do not intend to remain idle in the event of German menace to the Balkans. What may induce the Reich to embark upon an adventure in Rumania is the German need for Rumanian oil Under the recent German-Rumanian protocol Rumania was expected to export approximately one-half of her exportable surplus of that commodity amounting to about 4,500,000 tons. The amount which Germany has received up to the present is indeed. small chiefly because the Danube is frozen, the railway through Russian-occupied Poland unreliable and the line through Hungary being limited to three trains of less than thirty wagons each a day because of fuel shortage. The pictures of the condition of the neutrals from the Baltic to the Black Sea are in essentials identical. Until the malevolent power of the Nazis has been crushed by the Allies they are doomed to an ever-menacing economic servitude if not invasion and subjugation. Their territories are threatened with armed forces whenever strategic and economic reasons in the German view demand it, and the conclusion is unavoidable that just as the Finns are fighting the battle of all neutrals in the north, so are the Allies engaged in a crusade on the result of which the fates of the smaller nations must inevitably depend. The outlook for the neutral countries is at present a gloomy one the only relieving ray of hope is that the Allies will secure that victory upon which they are bending all their energies, for in it lies the only chance that these nations will continue to enjoy their integrity.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.