Evening star., 1918-07-07
Secret Pact With Germany.

Secret Pact With Germany.
The white guard government. hav-
ing failed to come. to any agreement
with the allies. redoubled its efforts
and finally made some secret agree
ment with Germany. The white guard
government tried to cmbroil Sweden
In the struggle. but Sweden abstained.
although a certain number of her
army offlcers and many men were per
land, where they at once took arms
with the white guards. There also
appeared with the white guards many
German officers, who had crossed
Sweden in civilian garb. 1t was not
long before Gen. Mannerheim. the
had a full staff of German advisers.
Soviet Russia did its best to keep
her promise to the reds that grain
would be furnished. The Finnish rail-
ways sent their own trains and loco
motives into middle Siberia to bring
ed somewhere in European Russia
and the grain all taken by starving
Russians. The second train carried 100
Finnish red guards. who brought
their supplies to Helsingfors. Sew
eral other trainloads of wheat were
obtained in a similar manner. The
situation was relieved. but not cured.
for one trainload would be exhausted
long before another had come in.
What agreement was reached be-
tween the Finnish white guard gov
ernment and the Germans l have never
even had a hint. At any rate. during
the first week in April. German forces
landed at Hanga and the white
guards attacked from the north. The
red guard forces were between two
fires. The soviet hurriedly sent re-
Inducements. but these reinforce
ments were unframed red GUARDS
who had never before shot a rifle eX-
cept into the air in celebration. They
were driven back bit by bit until the
whole Finnish red guard army cross
ed into Russian territory. Following
this the Germans made a vigorous
protest to Russia over the sanctuary
offered the red guard troops by the
soviet government.
Gave Red Guard Sanctuary.
The Russian soviet gave the red
guards sanctuary from the pursuing
Germans The Finnish red guard gov
ernment-called Finnish folk com
missioners''-took a building in Pc
trograd and eventually moved to Mos
cow The white guard government
offered amnesty to all red guard fol-
lowers provided they would return to
Finland without their arms and abide
by the rules OF martial law set down
by Gen. Mannerheim.
The civil war in Finland was very
bitter and frequently prisoners on
both sides were executed. The Rus
sian soviet government protested to
Germany regarding the ruthless treat
ment of Russian volunteers who had
been taken prisoner by the white
guards or the Germans. Frequently
the red guard leaders were hanged
and nearly all of the Russian red
guard officers who had volunteered
for service with the Finnish reds were
shot or hanged.
About so per cent of the Finnish
red guard soldiers-that is, about
10000 men-are exiles from their
land. They are all In the Petrograd
and Ladoga regions. although some
of them are at KEN. These Finnish
red guards conduct mild sort of
guerilla warfare along the Finnish
frontier. They are supported by un-
official payments from the soviet
treasury through the Finnish revolu-
tionary government now situated in
Moscow. In the event of a German
advance eastward from Finland there
would then be a certain amount of
resistance, as they would encounter
$4,000 Russian soviet troops. 10000
Finnish red guards and what few
thousands of allied troops there are
at Mourman.