Strategic Islands and Peninsulas *Ceded"
By New Red Cabinet London, Dec. 3.
A treaty of mutual assistance was signed yesterday between the Soviet Union and the "Government of the Finnish Democratic Republic"—the regime formed in Soviet-occupied Finland—the Moscow radio station announced last night.
The Soviet Union, it was stated, undertakes to hand over to Finland 70,000 square kilometres of the Soviet part of Karelia, in exchange for 3,970 square kilometres held by Finland of the Karelian Isthmus, north of Len-ingram. The Soviet Government will pay compensation of 120,000,000 Finnish marks for this territory.
The Soviet, it was further announced, has been granted a 30-year lease of the Bange Peninsula and adjacent territorial waters, as well as the lease of a number of islands south-east of Bange. Russia will establish a military and naval bose at Bange "to protect the entrances of the Gulf of Finland against aggression"
A number of islands in the Gulf of Finland, including Hogland, Seiskari and Bjorkoe, have been ceded to the Soviet Government, also the Finnish parts of the Rybachi and Sredny peninsulas on the Arctic Ocean. The Soviet Union will pay 300,000,000 marks compensation for these islands.
Russia also promises to supply the "Finnish Democratic Government" with arms and war materials.
The treaty, which is termed to run for 25 years, comes into- force immediately, The pact was signed in Moscow by M. Viacheslav Molotov, Soviet Foreign Commissar, and M. Otto Kuussinen, Premier and Foreign Minister of the "Finnish Democratic Government," in the presence of M. Joseph Stalin and other Soviet leaders.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.