Fascist Fritter

The last time U. S. readers heard about Major General K. Martii Wallenius was almost a year ago, when he was released from jail after he had been cashiered from the army and sentenced to three years imprisonment for kidnapping Finland's George Washington, Professor Kaarlo Juho Stahlberg, her first President. General Wallenius was in the news again last week. At the head of 5,000 Lapuan Finnish Fascists he marched on Helsinki, the capital. Government troops met the advance 25 miles from the city where a skirmish occurred and the Lapuan march prudently halted. General Wallenius contented himself with hurling an ultimatum at the Finnish Government threatening civil war unless all Marxist & Socialist members of the Government were removed from office.

Finland's present President, jovial Pehr Evind Svinhufvud,* stands no bluffing. Ukko Pekka ("Old Man Pehr"), as he is known to his constituents, promptly put into force an emergency safety law permitting the Government to suppress papers, search houses, halt all armed forces. Next he reorganized the Cabinet, putting in loyal General K. L. Oesch as Assistant Minister of the Interior, specially charged with maintaining public safety. Against Lapuan hopes, the Finnish Civil Guard remained loyal. The Lapuan leaders, General Wallenius and Vihtor Kosula, issued a blast about "fighting to the last man," but thought better of it as hundreds of their followers quietly deserted and the revolt frittered out.

Kustaa Latvala, a onetime school teacher and one of the most violent Lapuan leaders, sent a bullet through his brain. Three thousand others surrendered.

No sooner was the Lapuan revolt ended than the Government had to face another problem. Packs of famished wolves were reported in East Finland sweeping south from Lapland. Farmers' livestock was slaughtered, the beasts even invading village streets. In mid-Finland a young girl was torn to pieces as she walked on the highroad near her home. Civil guards turned from the Fascists to the wolves but were able to report the death of only two by the week's end.

*Svinhufvud, mistranslated "Pig's Head," means "Boar's Head." The name derives from the family crest, an aristocratic blazon which the Svinhufvuds share with the Dukes of Argyll, Harvard's Porcellian Club and Gordon's Gin.

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