The perfidy of Hitler's Germany has never been more clearly demonstrated than by the statement made by two representative Fini in Stockholm, and carried by the Tass News Agency. Finland, they say, has suffered more in the past ten weeks than during the whole of the former campaign against Russia, Germany, they claim. has thrown the whole burden of war in the extreme northern sector upon the Finnish army, but is rendering insufficient assistance in the matter of armament. The German air force is giving little support to Finnish land operations, with the result that the Finns are suffering' very high casualties, while the German troops have drained Finland of food supplies'so that the population is starving. Hitler is apparently determined to wage war upon the Russians to the last Finn. Failure to give the Finns sufficient air support can be explained in two ways. Either the Germans have not enough aeroplanes to divert sufficient force to Finland, or. what is more probable, Hitler is completely callous and indifferent to what happens to the Finns so long as they contribute towards the invasion of Russia.
Finland, which suffered sufficiently during the war of 1939, and was commencing to get her economic system into some degree of order, was persuaded to throw in its lot with Germany ostensibly for the purpose of recovering the territory which had been lost to.the Soviet. The Germans appear to have assisted them to the extent of the division Which was passed through Sweden, but it now seems that those men were sent to live on the land. and that whatever supplies went forward were not sufficient. Possibly that was due to the necessity for devoting more attention to forwarding war material rather than food, and the result is that Finnish supples, not yet up to the: pre-1939 mark, have been depleted by the voracious appetites of the German soldiery, who are not to be expected to have much compunction about the aru of the people who after all are allies. the consent of misguided governments. Balkan nations, whether occupied by or fraud, have been completely des-even those whose troops are actually on the side of the Axis Powers. In Ukraine, Germany. which has gutted eta speeds Stele nett Yan, case of Hungary is the same.
ose troops together with German massed along the Turkish precisely the same predicament, Even Iran, while the Germans were trying to persuade its Government to join the Axis cause, was reduced to starvation the ini-qui tous purchase of foodstuffs at prices which proved a temptation to unscrupulous monopolists. In other countries which have been overrun by the German forces the story is the same, but far worse. Denmark. Holland, Belgium, and occupied France have been ruthlessly despoiled, by force if necessary but generally by the fraudulent manipulation of those countries' currencies. Whether this is merely part of the German system of plunder, or is designed to afford as much relief as possible to the demand upon Germany's own reserves remains to be seen, but the lot of any country which by one means or another allows the Germans within its borders is in every case a sad one.
There have been rumours abroad that the Finns were preparing to negotiate a separate peace with Russia. They were supported by the story of the withdrawal of the Russians from the Karelian border to their former. frontier. But there does not seem to be much truth in the story. Firstly, it cannot be believed that Russia would make peace with the Finns so long as their country afforded Germany a base from which to attack Russia in the extreme north; secondly, it is not to be believed that the Finns are in any position to expel the Germans from their territory; and. thirdly, the Germans would not permit them to make peace anyhow. It is a regrettable fact that the Finns, having entered into combination with the Germans: have been as surely drawn within the scope of the Axis as has any other nation which has not done so so willingly. That there should be discontent in Finland is only natural in the circumstances, but that discontent arises from the fact' that Germany is constitutionally unable to understand anything but the service of her own interests.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.