Evening star., 1940-01-26
Writer Finds Il Cold
And Exciting E|uding
Raiders in Finland
Underground Shelter
In Park Provides
Refuge From Bombs
BY WILLIAM L. WHITE.
Continued From Yesterday

Continued From Yesterday
HELSINKI (By AirmaiD SO this
Is what an AFRAID shelter looks like,
and feels like, when there is a real
air raid going on, and you, person.
ally, are target; or anyhow, a small.
excited, inflnitesimal section of the
target.
The shelter is in the middle of the
park, near the hotel.
1t is we'll made, and will keep off
shrapnel falling back into the streets
from the defense guns, which is
what kills more of the people who
die in close-quarters, air raids any
how.
Only you can't hear the shrap-
mel Gathering back into the streets,
but you can hear the banging of
the anti-aircraft guns, so you know
the planes can't be over the city yet,
but they must be pretty close at
that, because the banging goes on.
Woman Dragged to Shelter.
Then, standing in the mouth of
the shelter you see them; four of
them; tiny, probably Russian, pur-
suit planes, so far away and so high
they seem to be drifting in the sky;
and then the cop shoves you back
into the shelter and when he turns
to look at the planes himself you
climb back up and watch, too, all
of you, except the old Finnish lady
IN black sitting on the wood bench,
and she grins and says something
in Finnish, and when you say you
are American she says something in
Swedish and grins and rubs her
hands, and says in Swedish it is
cold, and you agree in Swedish that
1t is very cold indeed.
Outside young woman is rum
ming across the park and the cop
with the rifle runs to intercept
her and tell her she must go down
into the afraid shelter in the park.
but she says no and tries to break
away, but the cop very politely takes
her arm and politely drags her to
the shelter, although it is hard to
drag any one tactfully and politely
to some place where he does not
want to go, but this cop does it
because all people must be kept off
the streets and no excuses or argu-
ments.
Planes Driven Away.
The streets are empty and we feel
a little silly standing in our air.
raid shelters, and in the one across
the gravel path the Hearst camera
man is sticking his head out and he
has matches but no cigarettes ana
1 have cigarettes but no matches,
and none of the Firms in my shelter
have any matches. Pretty soon the
banging stops, but we cannot 90
out yet, and after about IS minutes
we can go out.
In the hotel lobby they say there
were four of them, all pursuit planes.
and they were driven back from the
town, or maybe they never really
tried to get over, but just wanted to
take pictures, and some one saws
they bombed the hell out of Viipuri
this morning, which is nice, because
tonight go up to Viipuri, and some
one else says that four Russians
abandoned one plane in their chutes
and have Lit in a suburb of Helsinki,
which is probably a rumor and a
wlshful-thinking lie.
Firms Burn Own Homes.
So I go back to my typewriter
and try to get going again on the
story about the old man who burned
down his house, but I find the end
ing OF 1t has slipped away from me
during the air raid, so you must
take my naked word for it that
these people are really brave enough
to burn their own homes with their
own hands as they retreat from the
Russians. They see nothing even
family remarkable or moving or
heroic or any of the other ad.
jectives in it, because it is some
thing you always must do and do
we'll If you are a Finn when the
Russians come in, as the Russians
have been doing here for about 800
years, and it is all part of being a
little country next door to a big
one, and remaining free because you
are brave.