FINLAND’S ARMIES FALL BACK. The city of Viipuri (Viborg) used to be Finland’s second largest, but no more. According to a Wednesday Associated Press dispatch, it is now “an artillery-raked no man’s land cluttered with ruins where more than 80,000 persons once lived.” And Russian troops draw ever closer to those ruins. Walter B. Kerr writes in Tuesday’s New York Herald Tribune that the Red Army is attacking over the ice of Viipuri Bay with the aims of outflanking the Mannerheim Line and encircling the city. They’ve seized the three strategic Koivisto Islands, whose coastal batteries had been employed with deadly efficiency by the Finns since the start of the war.
The Wednesday A.P. story also says Finland has suffered a reversal in the Far North. According to the Finns themselves, their Arctic army has been forced by Soviet pressure to withdraw to Nautsi on the border with Norway, some 85 miles south of the Finnish port of Petsamo, which has long been in Russian hands. A major battle is underway in the area, and the Finns have been driven back from their original positions.
Sadly, it looks like the Finns are starting to crack.
WHAT DID WELLES DO IN ROME? Did Under Secretary of State Welles “cut short his stay in Rome and hurry to Berlin via Switzerland,” as David Darrah reports in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune? Mr. Darrah says the Paris papers have played up the “mystery” of Secretary Welles’ “sudden departure.” There’s also speculation about a link between the Secretary’s departure and the conference of Scandinavian foreign ministers in Copenhagen. One report mentions a desire by Mr. Welles to sample neutral opinion among the Swiss, the Dutch, and the Belgians. The French don’t have a very elevated view of the mission -- a Paris writer says that “no peace is possible at the moment and Sumner Welles can make his report on the possibilities in one line.”
But the New York Times’ story on Wednesday paints the Rome visit in a highly favorable light. The report claims Mr. Welles left Rome “in a cheerful frame of mind” after talks with Mussolini and Foreign Minister Ciano. He expects to call on the Italians again before his trip is concluded. The Times also says, interestingly enough, that the Italian view of the visit is now much more favorable than it was when it began -- “Italian circles, close to the government, display the same optimism as Welles...The press also shares in this warm atmosphere in its friendly headlines – the first in at least two years.”
According to the Times, Secretary Welles has spent a pretty fair amount of time so far denying all sorts of things. The latest -- “Welles disclaimed knowledge of reports the Germans had drawn up a peace plan, which they intended to submit to him when in Berlin and also categorically denied that it was part of his mission to try to end the Russo-Finnish war, as indicated by Rome newspapers this morning.”
HITLER THE WASP. In his Washington Post column on Wednesday, Barnet Nover compares Hitler to the eumenidae, a species of wasp “that paralyzes its intended victims before devouring them.” Mr. Nover says that Hitler’s politics of paralysis is working very well against the Scandinavian countries, to Finland’s detriment and Russia’s gain --
“Why are Finland’s supporters paralyzed, or, at least, partially paralyzed? It is not Russia which is feared, not after three months of Finnish resistance. The fear which has inhibited action is the fear of Germany. That fear has prevented the Scandinavian countries from acting as a unit although, as a unit, they possess not inconsiderable force. The same fear has also kept the Allies from rushing in to Finland’s assistance. For the Allies have been acting on the assumption that they mus husband all their strength to meet a German assault in the spring, an assault which may not occur....It is not Swedish aid to Finland which Hitler fears, but the creation of a Scandinavian alliance which, weak as it would be vis-a-vis the Reich, would be sufficiently strong in view of the certain assurance it would have of Allied backing, to defy him. He cannot, with the blockade bearing down on Germany, risk such defiance.”
More clearly than most, Mr. Nover also points out the stakes in the Finnish war for the European democracies -- “If Finland goes under it is more than a mere probability that Russia and Germany between them will spread their tentacles over the rest of Scandinavia. It is a certainty. And the loss of prestige it will mean for the Allies, regardless of whatever justifiable excuses they may be able to offer for the inadequacy of their assistance to Finland, will be of very serious moment to them.” Can Chamberlain or Daladier deny the truth of this? Will Finland’s increasing plight finally move them to decisive action on the Finns’ behalf?
NAZIS MOVE ON THE LUXEMBURG BORDER. An Associated Press story made the papers Tuesday saying that “great German transport activity” has been reported across the border from the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. The A.P. says that “trains were numerous and long columns of trucks, infantry, and cavalry could be seen.” It’s said that Field Marshall Hermann Goering and four German generals visited the German fortifications in the area last week-end.
A THIRD TERM? WANNA BET? An item from Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune -- “Commissioners in lower Manhattan today reported that bets amounting to $6,000 have been placed at odds of two to one that Franklin D. Roosevelt will not be the next President. It was said also that $24,000 had been offered at the same odds without takers to date. Bets are being laid at 7 or 8 to 5 that Mr. Roosevelt will be renominated and at even money that, if nominated, he will not be elected.”
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