Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-03-21
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS REVIEW
Continued from Page ~

Great Britain and France; another
guess had it that the conversation
dealt with the possibility of new
peace vancouver, and that Musso-
lini had wanted to get from the lips
of Hitler himself the minimum Ger
man terms in order to be able to
convey them to Sumner Welles, the
United States undersecretary of state,
waiting in Rome and delaying his
return to Washington for that very
purpose; and-finally-a third guess
was to the effect that Hitler wanted
to persuade Mussolini to align him
self with Stain and take steps toward
the forming of German-Italian-
Russian alliance.
1t was all guesswork; one of the
guesses may prove to be correct, or
none may. Nobody knows.
Finnish Russian Peace.
But it was not gueSswork that the
peace concluded between Finland and
Russia had in some way affected the
general European turbulence; the
ramifications of that agreement are
yet to come.
We talk in this country about
shotgun weddings or some such
hold-up. That was the kind of peace
which Russia dictated to Finland
The small, defeated nation had to
surrender all its defenses, including
the Mannerheim line, to the con-
queror; it had to cede the entire
Karelian isthmus with all its forests,
its wood-pulp factories, its sawmills
and paper mills; it had to give to Rus
STA the rich agricultural region north
and west of the Ladoga lake; it had
to build, for the benefit of the Soviets,
railroad clear through Finland, con-
Meeting Russia with Sweden, and it
had to grant Russians free and I'M
hindered access through the Arctic
part of Finland to the northernmost
ports of Norway.
The Firms had no alternative. They
had to sign. A nation of 3 millions
could not much longer have stood up
against one of 1870 millions-when no
help came.
Alliance Plans.
There had been promises of Brit
ish and French armed assistance,
but troops could not be sent through
the territory of Norway and Sweden
without, over their protest, violat-
ing the neutrality of those two coun-
tries. No countries in all the world
had deeper sympathy with the Firms
than did Norway and Sweden, none
helped Finland more generously than
did those nations. But at the moment
they opened their frontiers to British
and French troops enroute for Fin
land, they would become virtual enc
mics of Russia, and in Oslo Norwegian
Foreign Minister Halvdan Koht Of
ficially confirmed what had been un-
officially known for quite a while
that at such moment Germany
would intervene. That is, Germany
would have marched right through
Denmark to Norway and Sweden.
That would have spelled the end of
the Scandinavian countries, and for
this reason the Norwegian and SWed-
ish governments felt that they had
to refuse passage to British and
French troops.
Now that the world has witnessed
another dictated peace, the question
as to the future comes up. And it
was natural that Finland bethought
herself, first of all, of an alliance
with Norway and Sweden.
Difficulties.
The Oslo and Stockholm govern
ments have not committed themselves
in this respect. They have expressed
willingness to discuss the plan, to
examine it from all possible view
points. Sentiment in Sweden seems
to be in favor of it.; in Norway the
press reflects what may be a popular
viewpoint that an alliance of this