The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-02-12
Expects British Aid.

should the warfare against the
Bolshevists continue we look to Great
Britain and France to see that the
Bolshevist fleet is held harmless The
fleet can not attack before next May,
and in the meantime we will take steps
to improve our coastal defenses. In
this respect we have had the best for
eign advisers and are not in the least
anxious. AS regards the land defenses,
there are more than a thousand kilo-
meters of land frontier, extending from
the coast to Lake Lodego, which is
absolutely untravelable; there are no
roads and vast forests The territory
the Bolshevists could cross if it were
left defenselesS Is very small indeed. 1t
Is also worth while remembering that
north of Lodego there are few thou
sand Finnish volunteers who have
crossed the frontier into Russian terri
tory and are well able to hold their
own.
Thus the Finnish regular army would
be needed only for garrison duty, with
the exception of the two or three regi-
mentS sent to the Karelian iSthmus be-
tween Viborg and Petrograd. We would
not have any difficulty in defending
Finland against the Bolshevists, even
thought they had an army of twice the
present size.
ut must not be forgotten that in ad-
dition to the regular army we have the
white guards q volunteer organization
of 10000 men, under the command Of
Col. Essen This gives strong back
ing to the regular army and means
that we are able to prevent any civil
war and to resist the attempts of the
Bolshevists to get control of the coun-
try, 49,, .., ,.,u . ..,,,o,,,,,u
that the Finnish general staff. the fly
ing corps and the tank regiments have
ali been organized by French officers
who are still in the Finnish service.
A great number of Finnish officers have
taken courses in the French and Italian
military and naval academies.
IF the allies decide to make peace
with the - Boshevists we must fall i'll
with them, but we are confident that in
such a case the allies will back us up
in taking proper measures to guard
against BOshevist encroachment.
Propaganda must be prevented and all
preCaUstions tHken to see that the evil
does not agar spread through Fin
land
I'VE have suffered from the fact that
until we attained our independence we
had no proper foreign representation
and in too many cases had to use
Swedish and German agents who made
huge profits This year we have or
ganzed our own consular and diplo-
matte service which has been especially
selected and instructed to see to our
exports and establish markets. We ex-
pect that during next year our exports
will amount in value to over two mil
| lions of marks. We have not been
able this year to export our goods to
any extent, these including large
quantity of sawn logs. We now have
plenty Of logs and wood pulp to supply
TO the United States as soon as We
can get shipping accommodations
Very little is known of Finland. es-
pecially in the United States, where,
understand. you have had but few OF
| the hest class settling, Still, it must
| be admitted that the Firms are a hard
working and saving race, and an asset
to any country We hope to make our
selves better known to America by oul
| exDorts--not Of people. but of these ne
| cessities which America needs. w,
feel we owe great debt to America
/ and our thanks go out to Mr. Hoover
and his staff for the great assistance
they have given US, both in food ant
| clothing Our thanks are also due t
| me American relief administration anC
| the American Red Cross for all the,
| have done to aid and assist US