Evening star., 1940-02-26
Corr
| StroI,'
New,

VVW9
Clomor TO. =. ..,ssion
To Get to the Front,
Dutch on Lunches
BY WILLIAM L. WHITE.
SOMEWHERE IN FINLAND-
This is being written from the war
zone, and I will get right down to
bloodshed and carnage in . very
few minutes, only shall lead up
to 1t through the subject Of Swedish
blonds. They are about the cutest
girls you have ever seen, and the
Swedish newspapers have sent .
number of very smart ones to Hell
sinki to cover this war, who would
be Just run-of-the-mill girls In
Sweden.
Only If you have never lived Ia
Sweden and are not used TO It
they will melt the rims Of your
spectacles just to look at them in
their blue ski pants and white wool
sex and white boot laces and white
leather wool-lined mittens and
angora sweaters and their white
camouflage jackets with big pale
baby blue patch pockets and sheep
skin Innings, and their peaked snow
helmets, and their cute Swedish
smiles, and their even cutter trick
of absolutely insisting on paying
their own lunch checks and really
meaning 1t, In addition to which they
are actually darned good working
newspaperwomer, some of them
ranking right up with the best Of
the American girls.
When the first ones arrived In
Helsinki they broke up the fine
camaraderie which had, up to then,
existed among the American news
papermen and almost started q
couple of good fist fights, but enough
have by now arrived so that tension
among the brothers is considerably
eased.
Major Gets Tough.
Now, am ever mindful Of nv
obligations to the serious American
public which has no time for such
trivialities as what happens to
Swedish blonds, and wants to know
about the deeper issues, but keep
your shirt on, brother, and we will
get down to those in just another
minute.
Meanwhile, a couple of particularly
n1pIflnO lNyr-v1 81
this base town under shell fire Gust
stop reading this if I am boring
you with the intention of going
to the front. and let me repeat that
they actually are darned good news
paperwomen even though very, very
beautiful. So then they come before
the very tough regular army major
who is in charge Of the press down
here, and Il the Firms were not a
good tough people they could never
have stood up at all against the
| Russians. So this major takes one
look at the girls and how beautiful
they are, and begins making a few
points to the effect that this is war
and serious business and not &
cocktail party on someone's veranda,
and among lot of Bofors guns and
hand grenades is no place for liquid
glances, so they certainly were not
going to the front, and they should
never have come this far, and when
he got back to Helsinki he was going
to make them understand that he
was supposed to run war down
here, and not young ladies' finish
| ing school.
So then both of the girls got SO
mad they began to cry, and to pro-
test that they were working news
paperwomen and not balls OF fluff,
and would take the same chances
OF being knocked off by shrapnel
that any man would, and all they
asked was chance to do their work,
and then big, soft, beautiful, golden,
feminine Swedish tears began to
splash down which would have
melted anything but the heart of
a Finnish major.
Serious Issues.
So then, after a while, we went
out and found a place open where
could buy them both a beer, and
they began to feel better, but they
were still good and mad and full
OF acute speculations on just what
must be wrong with the majors
home life that made him so un-
pleasant to women, and this was
as good as anything you have ever
heard in any language.
Now the serious issues that I have
been promising you all along just
to keep up your interest is finally
thus: Is it not true that even in
war women should have an oppor-
tunity to work, equal with that Of
men? And no right-thinking person
could but answer this question with
a hearty Affirmative.
Yet must privately agree that in
coarse, earthly practical way that
major was right; if those girls had
been allowed up on the front lines
it would have been quite impossible
to keep the war running in anything
like an orderly fashion.
Yet would not change even this:
for after you have hung around
wars for while you get to be a
fatalist and are content to make the
best OF the world as you find 1t.
and so do not struggle and protest
against the Divine Plan.