Evening star., 1939-12-27
Finns' Resistance
Expected 10 Stiffen
Other Little States
Influence Is Likely to
Be Felt as Far
As India
~ COL. FREDERICK PALMER.

~
By COL. FREDERICK PALMER.
That the Firms are not only hold
ing the Soviet sons of Stain, but
cracking back at them when the
Russo-Finnish conflict is nearly
month old is the most stirring and
important fact in the whole Euro
pean war The measure of its in
fluence can hardly be underesti-
mated.
It is an encouragement to all de-
mocracies, which were supposed to
stumble along in legislative delays
and divided councils while dictator
ships centralized power for swift,
well-prepared military action.
1t may be the turning point in
world history as to which of the two
systems of government will predom-
mate.
No American reading his daily
paper 5000 or more miles from the
mine fields of the North Sea can
have quite so vital an interest in
the news from the Finnish front as
the governments and the military
stats from the Persian Gulf to the
Shetland Islands.
The Shah of Iran. who was re-
ported to be in line for one OF
those mutual assistance pacts with
the Soviets. will not be quite so
tractable as he was a month ago.
He will be more inclined to rely on
Anglo-French support against sub
mission to Stain. President ISmet
Inonu of Turkey will be surer Of
his wisdom in putting up a stiff
front to Stain and making friends
with the British and French.
Should Stiffen Rumania.
Finlands example should also put
sand in the craw of Rumania, which
has an army three times the size
of Finlands. and in the craWS OF
all the other Balkan nations. Nor
way, Sweden. the Netherlands,
Switzerland all the little nations
may take heart.
The Russians strategy was all
right on paper. They would engage
the Firms on the Mannerheim Line of
the Karelian ISthmus, swing around
Lake Ladoga in flank on the south
ern. the populouS part of Finland:
take the Arctic port of Petsamo and
thrust converging columns through
to the Gulf of Bothnia across "the
waist" the narrow part of Fin
land, cutting the trunk-line railroad
to Sweden.
Their own communicates. by their
silence, confess their having been
stopped in every direction. except
that they did take Petsamo, only to
have the drive southwark beaten
back in disaster. The old military
excuse that retreat was to draw
the enemy failed to convince in
the face of realized strategy by the
Finnish soldiers in their swift flank
attacks. They have applied the in
telligence and the initiative of the
democratic system, bred in them in
the Finnish republic. 1t is the same
method as that OF our soldiers in
France in taking machine gun nests,
the same that will be used if there
is heavy fighting on the western
front The Firms have not sat still
to take it on the defensive, but
counterattacked according to sound
principles, which win the respect of
all high commands.
The bombardment of Viipuri by
the Russians with a long-range gun
of a reported caliber of from 6 to II
inches makes sensation. But it's
power NAV be exaggerated. Dugouts
nc
an 1l-inch shell are quite practicable
for soldiers In the battle of Ypres
the British held fast under the shells
of a l6-inch German gun. They
never Welded the ruins of Ypres,
Arras and Rheims.
Failed to Seize Railroad.
The wonder is that the Soviets, in
their initial totalitarian rush, did
not seize the railroad up TO the
Mannerheim Line. This would have
allowed for the movement of their
big guns on railroad mounts, of
which they must have some. as all
great armies have.
The dictator promises swift, easy
victory if all wills are submitted to
his. If the swift. easy victory is not
delivered. there is diSillusionment
for his soldiers. Democracies go to
war by public choice The soldiers
are prepared for the worst and to
see it through.
The Finns who said they would
hold out for six months, have held
out so far one month and, though
eventually overwhelmed, their eX-
ample will strengthen the spirit of
the allied soldiers against a German
offensive. Adolf Hitler may wonder
how the news from Finland will af-
feet the morale of the German SOL
diers The influence will spread as
far as India. where Mohandas
Gandhi may find that Communism
IS not SO attractive and the threat
of the great Russian devil may be
somewhat exercised for him.
In view of the slow progress of his
horde in Finland, we may specu-
latively inquire what would be
Stalin'S attitude toward an attack
by the present French Army, or such
an army as the British or we had in
France in 1918? He might want an
immediate mutual assistance pact
with the accursed democracieS.
(Released by North American Newspaper
Alliance. IncJ
..>>I L. C->-l \AI