March 1.
While the Soviet forces have inanayed to the Mannerheim Line to a consider-success does not necessarily they have made very great progress towards vielory. The Finns, it is re-Ported 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 accor as they have up to the present. safely be said that the compai have made is wholly out of proportion 10 the enormous losses of men, and material which they have suffered, and, if the F ultimate Russian victory, and when it comes, will have been paid for most dearly. 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" pos as many as half a million." Mr. Wi 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 defence of their country against the most cynical aggression, and which cannot but arouse the sympathy with the during the past few das:
Russians are throw! men into the field military fee. With the experts they have made some headway, but with all their much vaunted strength the Russians have failed to make any very real imp ud failure become buted to ighting propre mich more than a heroic adjutant:. It fight by a tiny nation against a gigantic one fie ings the triumph gf moral quality lover brutishness. IL is only. after three [months of fighting that the Russians have been able to wrest some degree of success nined Finns and any who the latter are likely {0 cone tinue their resistance much longer will most ably he 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 coely conclusion, 'Their partner' in crime, the Reich, desires the same thing as the only obtaining something out of Herr Hitler's immoral surrender of his oft-proclaimed principles, Troops have been rushed to the Fi jon the Bessarabi the moment the press upon Rumania has been relaxed. That will prove to be but temporarily, it has occurred provider N85 eistanee of the Finns lis made Upon the ample test of the demands which
taken into {eeturess Gt the Ttuesian ail wry machine, hose resources for all practical purposes may be regarded as without limit, with the normans manpower which Russia' possesses, but the Finns have shown the Soviet amy to be what it is, and justifies the be should Moscow contempt tures elsewhere the possibilities of defeating them are more than a little rosy. It isa most lamentable fact that the pressure which Germany is bringing to bear upon the ws Se indinavian countries may sooner or later ead to the stoppage of assistance to the Finns. There are already suggestions cur= rent that Sweden may find herself obliged to prevent transit of men and war supplies Finland, under throaty 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 ever the whole Seandinavian peninsula the shadow of menace to the Independence of the peoples of Norway and Sweden, and it ix to be feared that it will not be Jony before those {wo countries be= ein tun the vielims of the predatory of Berlin and Moscow. That this 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 combined resistance to any threat which may be inst them, With the Allies and Turkey behind the 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. aly may be expected to offer resistanes should Russia seck to invade the Balkans, while should Ger= many do so the Allies may be expected to jove in such a manner ax 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 Nea ent that they do not, uterid to remain idle in the event of German Whi induce bark upon an adventure in la is the German need for Rumanian oil, Under the recent German-Rumanian was expected to export alt of her exportable that modity amounting the amount which Germany has p to the present is indeed small chiefly because the Danube ix frozen, the railway through Russian-occupied Poland unreliable and the Tine through Hun= ry being limited to three trains of less t ay because of fuel the condition of the Baltic to the Black identical, Until the the Nazis hax been they are doomed menacing economic servitude if not in ud subjugation. Their territories are armed forees whenever d economic reasons in the German the conclusion issu lable that just as the Finns are ighting 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 present a loamy one is that th Allies tt victory upon which they are bending all their energies, for in it Ties 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.