Evening star., 1939-12-15
Sweden Regarded
As Certain 10 Offer
Aid 10 Finland
Threat to Own Safety
Seen in Russio's
Main Attack
By WALTER DURANTY.

STOCKHOLM, Dec. Is (N.ANA.,
by radio).-It is hard to write coldly
and clearly Of the Finnish war from
Stockholm. Perhaps it is hard for
you to read it back home in peaceful
America-of this fight of a gallant
people against overwhelming odds.
II makes the Swedes burn. Although,
honestly, 1t Is no more their quarrel
than 1t is yours, they feel most deep
y about it. Perhaps. it is because it
b nearer and may involve them to-
morrow.
OF course, the Swedes are involved
especially by the main Russian at
tack, which aims through Finland's
wasp waist" at the Gulf of Both
mia. II the Russians win there, they
will not only cut Finland in half,
but can make Swedish help to Fin
land most difficult and, incidentally,
control the southern Swedish ports
Of iron exports. And they could vir-
tually blockade Swedens eastern
outlets.
If Sweden intends to help Finland.
as I am sure that Sweden does, and
II you have sympathy for Finland
and for Sweden, you can only wish
them luck because you cannot do
more, it seems, in the sacred name
Of neutrality.
Most Decisive Area.
That section of the Gulf of Both
MIA between the Swedish town of
Haparanda and the Finnish town of
Tornea, just across the river, and
down along the coast to Uleaborg is
today the most decisive area in the
Russo-Finnish non-war It was the
Russians who called it non-War, and
surely that, say many people in
Sweden. would justify us in helping
the Firms and calling it 'non-inter-
vention' after the Italian model in
Spain.
In the meantime, there has been
heavy fighting on front of about
100 miles. from Kuolo Lake in the
north to Suomusalmi in the south
It Is aimed from the north at the
railroad from Lake Kemi to Tornea
and in the south at the railroad
which runs from Nurmes to the
Uleaborg. 1t is as clear as day if
you look at the map-the Russians
are trying to drive from the north.
east and the southeast on the two
railroads that feed the Bothnian
coastline
At present, the main Russian force
rs near the village of Salla on the
northern sector of the front. The
Russians captured Salla early in
the war, but the Firms claim today
they have retaken it.
Lost Salla Because of Pact.
A Swedish correspondent with ine
Finnish army tells how Finnish.
general explained that they los
Salla because the Firms and Rus
slams had signed pact to kec
troops some distance from the fro. =
tier. But, in the weeks before r.
war began. the Russians moved L
troops to the frontier opposite Sal
and, the moment war was s'artnG
they rushed them across, suppe d
by artillery, light tanks and armuIed
cars. They took the Firms by sur
prise and seized Salla, on the
heights Of which is favorite 81 ling
ground Of Finnish sportsmen,
whence the ground slopes down to
Kemi, the railroad of the line to
Tornea.
It began like that, but the Firms
rallied and fought one of the blood
lest battles of this war in the Salla
Churchyard. This church was a
shrine of the Firms who died in the
war against the Bolsheviks in 1918
When the main body of Finnish
troops withdrew from Salla village
. few dozen brave men stayed in the
church with machine guns and au-
tomato rifles to see what they might
do to hold up the Russians advance
BY amazing luck few of them es-
capped and survived to tell the tale
There were hundreds of graves
n the churchyard of men who died
to hold Finland free from the Reds,
one of them said But when we
were forced to retreat there we're
two Russian corpses there for every
Finnish grave"
Many Reports Discounted.
I discount the Finnish reports
that the Russians are suffering from
Scurvy and have not eaten for days;
that the Russians abandoned at
tacks to plunder bits of Finnish
field kitchens; that in the Russian
bivouacs recaptured by the Firms
there are bones of dogs which had
been cooked and gnawed. 1 dis
count these stories, but 1t does
seem nevertheless that the Rus