Word: finlander
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Sweden, which used to boss the Baltic and lick the Russians pretty regularly until Napoleon persuaded Denmark and Russia to gang up on her in 1808, joined Finland in mining the Gulf of Bothnia to keep the Red Navy out and Finland's supply lines open. Forty thousand more men were mobilized, bringing Sweden's armed forces to 150,000. The fortress of Boden, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, was reinforced with reserves. Here was the greatest Russian threat to Sweden, marked by the steady progress of a Russian column across Finland toward Tornio...
...week Speaker Väinö Hakkila of the Finnish Diet broadcast a stirring plea for aid in which he declared that "We believe the civilized world . . . will not leave us to fight alone against an enemy more numerous than ourselves." But if Scandinavia went to the aid of Finland, it would be an invitation: 1) to Russia to move in on the north; 2) to Germany to move in on the south. There was always a chance, though slim, that Russia would be satisfied with Finland, and there was an even slimmer chance that with enough unofficial help Finland...
...weather and valor and Russian blunders are not enough, if Finland fails, if Scandinavia has to fight, its three nations can muster between them less than 1,000,000 men, of which Sweden would furnish more than half. The Swedish Air Force has some 250 planes, Norway's and Denmark's less than 100 each. Sweden has a small but efficient Navy of six cruisers, three pocket battleships, five coast defense ships, one aircraft carrier, eight destroyers, eight torpedo boats, 16 submarines and 31 motor torpedo boats. Neither Norway nor Denmark has anything that might be called...
Scandinavia's predicament was reflected by the Oslo Aftenposten, which suggested that the U. S. help Finland with munitions, airplanes and fliers, since "no European State can effectively help Finland." In that the Aftenposten was mistaken. The only State in the world which surely can save Scandinavia from Russian conquest is Germany...
Next day came an apparent answer to Völkischer Beobachter's prayer. In Moscow Communist International,official organ of the Communist Party, warned Rumania that she had better conclude an immediate pact with Russia, similar to those granted by the Baltic States and refused by unlucky Finland, and turn over the lost province of Bessarabia. In Moscow, New York Times Correspondent G. E. R. Gedye said he had learned "from a highly qualified observer" that Rumania did not even intend to defend the province-had no fortifications and not a single soldier there, was evacuating Rumanian businesses from...