Arizona republican., 1917-12-06
DEATH FROM HUNGER MENACES FINLAND
 |F.FLOUR WITHHELD
Republican A. p. Leased Wirel


 NEW YORK, Dec. 5.-Speedy death from hunger threatens the greater part of the population of Finland unless they can obtain flour from the United States. asserts Dr. Kaarlo Ignatius, commissioner of the Finnish govern ment for negotiating the release of foodstuffs by the United States gov ernment, in a statement to the Asso- ciated Press. The threat to Finland IS not privation or even chronic starva- ton, he declares. Concerning Fin lands needs and its causes, Dr. Igna- tius said:
 Tn regard to food supply, Finland is worse off than any of the European states whose sufferings have been brought before the American public. For months past, our people have been eating bread made out of flour mixed with pinebark and lichens; but even with this expedient we cannot hold out. as the flour reserve virtually is ex- hausted, and even our hardy population cannot eat unmixed bark.
 The sufferings endured in the sum- mer were terrible; and since l left Finland in September they have be- come much worse. Nothing can save us except the prompt release by the American government of the flour which we have already ordered and paid for in the United States
 Finland has never been self-sup- porting as regards food Her three and half millions of people scattered over 373,O00 square kilometers of territory, have depended largely upon foreign supplies of grain, in exchange for which they exported forestry products. Be- fore the war, we imported annually about 100000 tons of breadstuffs; and of these about 50,000 tons came from the United States. The rest came from Russia. With war the import from America ceased and as Russia's own food troubles grew and her railroad service became disOrganiZed, the i'm port from Russia ceased also. Then starvation began.
 All 1 want is the release of enough flour to save us from death and hun- ger Privation we have stood and are willing to stand. We ask for this con- cession and we base our demand upon justice as regards the past and upon policy as regards the future.
 As regards the past, we are only asking for payment for services al ready rendered to the Allies. These services have been of great value. Fin land Loyalty helped Russia as long as Russia was fighting, and she is willing to help in future if Russia resumes l fighting.
 During the war, Finland has been absolutely loyal. This in the face of great provocation by the now-eXtinct i autocracY In September, 1914. in re- turn for Finnish expressions of loyal ty, Nicholas II issued a decree further suppressing the Finnish language and what little was left of our constitution. l Yet We remained loyal. We mObilized | our industries on a war basis with a thoroughness and efficiency which have been acknowledged repeatedly by the Petrograd government.
 All our cities, in particular Helsing- fors, TammerfOrs, and Apo, at once became munitions workshops They supplied Russia with uniforms. boots, leather goods, shells. cartridges, and machine guns. In our ports we built destroyers and torpedo boats. The former minister of war. General Poli- vanoff. informed a newspaper corre- spondent that Finlands war industries were flourishing and were a model to Russia
 These war industries, important factors in Russia's resistance, proved to be one cause of our present lament able plight, and that is why we cite them as a reason why America should help us now. Under normal conditions, we should have been paid for our mum itions in Russian money and allowed with this Russian money to import Russian and foreign foodstuffs. In fact, we were flooded with Russian paper rubles: but were not allowed to buy necessaries of life either in Russia or abroad. We got so far as to order breadstuffs in Russia; we even paid l for them in advance; and the pro- i visiOnal government promised to allow their export to us; but owing to trans 1 port disorganizauon we got nothing. Thus we suffered directly from our | help to Russia If we had not con- l centrated on munitions making we l might have diverted our industrial la l bor into agricultural channels, and | conditions would not have been quite l so bad as they are.
 1 We supported Russia in other ways. As long as we could, we sent 1 her milk and butter. We supported a | vast Russian naval and military gar l rison, which alone adds a big per l centage to our population figure. and l we support an innumerable army i