Evening star., 1940-02-17
No Swedish Help for Firms

From the United States, three
thousand five hundred miles safely
distant from the war zone, yet re-
fusing Finland material aid, no just
criticism of Sweden is in order for
rejecting an appeal for direct mill
tary assistance from small neighbor
just across the Gulf of Bothnia.
There will nevertheless be profound
disappointment in this country over
the Stockholm governments appar-
emily final decision to refuse "the
transport of Swedish military groups
to Finland"
Formal announcement to that
effect was made by Premier Hanson
yesterday, on the ground that "Swe-
den's position in regard to assisting
her neighbors is unchanged" The
communique thus exemplifies the
principle laid down at the begin
ming of the Russo-Finnish war by
the Scandinavian royal conference
at Stockholm, when the Kings of
Sweden, Norway and Denmark,
meeting with the President of Fin
land, pledged platonic sympathy
with the invaded republic, but
vouchsafed no assurance of armed
assistance.
The Firms, obviously facing the
inevitability of defeat by their over
whelmingly more powerful enemy,
seem this week to have appealed
directly to the Stockholm cabinet
for aid. They are reported by the
Swedish press to have informed the
Hanson government that they must
have more help-direct Swedish
military help-or face the grim
necessity of concluding peace with
the Soviet "in a manner greatly con-
corning Sweden" Therein lies an only
thinly concealed warning that once
Stains Red Army has crushed Finn
military resistance and established
itself on the coast of the Gulf of
Bothnia, within easy air bombing
and artillery range of Sweden's east
ern shores, the hour cannot long be
postponed when King Gustaf's land
will find itself under the menace OF
Stains advance to the Atlantic, with
Norway as the almost certain next
victim earmarked for attack.
Such an extension Of Communist
influence and power into the Baltic
supposedly would evoke the instant
and resolute resistance of Germany,
but what sort of a dark-lantern deal
Hitler may have with Stain for
precisely such purpose can only be
surmised Germany's arrangements
for war supplies from Russia are
believed to be still far from complete
or iron-bound. It is we'll within the
realm of possibilities that Moscow
envisions the opportunity OF now
driving a hard bargain with the Nazis
for free Russian hand throughout
the Scandinavian peninsula and the
Baltic as the price of deal for
becoming Germany's base of supply
for oil, coal, copper, wheat, manga
nese and perhaps even for Swedish
iron, on which Nazi industry long has
been mainly dependent and which
presently may come under Soviet
control.
Sweden clearly has had to take the
vital interests of self-preservation
into consideration before openly
becoming the military ally of Fin
land. She hitherto has been of such
aid as safety seemed to permit; she
has allowed Swedish unofficial mill
tary units in considerable numbers
to fight with the Firms as volunteers,
but, confronted with Helsinki re-
quests for more positive and direct
aid, both in troops and in the form
of permission to let British and
French forces and military. equip
ment cross Swedish territory en- route
to the Mannerheim Line, Stockholm
has concluded that discretion is the
better part Of valor.
With Sweden adhering to this posi-
ton, the establishment of a new
allied front against Germany or
Russia, or both, on the Scandinavian
peninsula becomes most improbable.
And the doom of Finland, of course,
appears correspondingly nearer, to
democratic civilizations infinite dis
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