(2 of 3)
In free Finland, editorial writers may say what they like about Russia, but they carefully think before saying it. The cafe arguer may damn Stalin to his heart's content, but he makes a joke instead. Finland's President proclaims publicly in the bleak tones of a bank examiner: "Our relations with Russia are friendly." In private he says wistfully, "Finland is a Western nation." Finland refused Marshall Plan aid on the ground that that would be entering an alliance against Russia, but it accepted a U.S. loan. When a newsman remarked that this was a pretty fine distinction, Premier Kekkonen replied: "Well, we live on fine distinctions." A Finnish reporter recently described his country's new, elongated currency as "dollar-type," referring only to its size and shape. His editor blue-penciled the phrase : "We don't want to be needlessly offensive to the Russians."
Yet, four years ago, when Finland's Communists (a smaller group proportionally than those in France or Italy) were on the point of launching a full-blown Czech-type coupled by Minister of the Interior Leino, Finland's government fired the treacherous minister and ruthlessly purged all Reds from his police force. It was the boldest anti-Red gesture made by any free country in Europe since the war, but Moscow said not a word.
Paid in Full. At the armistice of September 1944, Russia handed vanquished Finland the stiffest reparations bill in recorded history, about 11% of her national income for eight years. The bill was carefully itemized. One-third was to be paid in the woodworking products which made up 80% of Finland's export earnings. Another third was to be paid in ships and cables, for which Finland would have to build new yards and import vast quantities of raw materials. The remaining third was to be paid in the products of heavy industry, for which Finland possessed neither the plants nor the material.
Russia's extortionate demands were based solely on the fact that she needed these items. How Finland, without iron, coal or heavy industry, was to produce them was Finland's worry. Aware that failure meant Russian occupation, bruised and battered Finland went to work, mobilized her depleted manpower, rationed her resources, her food, her living space and her energy, built plants and bought raw materials. By the end of this year, she will have paid the staggering bill in full.
SSS. The Finnish 1,000-mark bill is engraved with a picture from mythology showing a band of naked people standing on a shore and looking wistfully out to sea. Finns today joke that the picture shows them waving to the last reparation ship. It is only a joke, however, for industrious Finland has emerged from doing the impossible, not naked and bankrupt, but riding on a wave of prosperity. Last year the sky-high prices for lumber and pulp all over the world sparked an export boom that more than doubled Finland's gold reserves and gave her a whopping $135 million (31 billion Finnmark) trade surplus.