Help Wanted

The predicament of the Scandinavian States last week was far worse than that of Western Europe's Great Powers. Well might Germany tremble at the thought of Russia's controlling the rich iron mines of Sweden. Well might Great Britain fear the establishment of a Red Fleet in Norway's impregnable fiords. Italy might well look forward to Balkan aggression by a Russia secure in the north. Throughout the world, people whose faith in democracy remained might well blanch at the prospect of a totalitarian attack on the nations where democracy has been most liberally applied. But it was Sweden which owned those coveted mines, and Norway whose coastline was threatened. And it was the leaders of these peoples who, if their governments were snuffed out, would be shot in the back of the head.

Early this week Speaker Vaeinoe 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 might hold Russia indefinitely. So, officially, the Scandinavian States did the only thing they felt they could do: nothing. Denmark, which is most vulnerable to a German attack, plumped hard for neutrality. Foreign Ministers Halvdan Koht of Norway and Rickard Sandier of Sweden, meeting with Denmark's Peter Munch in Oslo, agreed to pass the buck to the League of Nations. But unofficially both Norway and Sweden did all they could for Finland.

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 on the Swedish-Finnish frontier. Some 4,000 Swedes volunteered for the Finnish Army and several hundred of them last week managed to cross the frontier and join up. Even more important were the supplies rushed to Finland by Sweden's great Bofors armament works, which sent gratis 25 anti-aircraft guns originally ordered by Poland.

On the political front Sweden showed signs of toughening her stand against both Germany and Russia. At week's end Foreign Minister Sandier, whose head has been demanded by both countries because of his "pro-British policies," still carried his portfolio. All but 50 members walked out of the Chamber of Deputies when a Communist got up to speak. Named active commander in chief of all Sweden's armed forces was 62-year-old Lieut. General Olof Gerhard Thoernell, an expert on Europe's armies, who announced: "The defense of . . . the Fatherland puts everything else in the background."

Norway, like Sweden, rushed reinforcements of arms, men and supplies to her northernmost positions, which would be threatened by the Russian capture of Petsamo. But with neither roads nor railways to the Arctic, Norway could do little to protect her iron mines at Kirkenes or her garrisons at Vadso and Vardo. From this territory civilians were evacuated and refugee Finns sent southward to be cared for by the Government.

If 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 a navy.

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.

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