There Goes Finland

Over good, grey Cordell Hull's press conference hovered the ghosts of 1939--the year tiny Finland ("the country that always pays its debts") was invaded by Russia, the year U.S. public opinion was united in sympathy for Finland as it has never been united since on an issue of World War II.

With sad patience, point by point, Cordell Hull composed a statement of how the U.S. official position had been forced to change. By continuing its present war against Russia, after regaining the territory it lost in 1939-40, Finland was thwarting the U.S. policy of aid to nations attacked by Hitler. The Finnish policy of fighting beside the Nazis would bring the war closer to the U.S.; for Finland it could end only in complete subjugation to Hitler. Therefore, unless Finland stopped its war against Russia, it could no longer count on U.S. friendship.

When he concluded. Cordell Hull looked like a man who had been forced to spank his son. Newsmen recalled the 1939 day when handsome Finnish Minister Hjalmar Procope had been cheered to the rafters by a group of hard-boiled Washington reporters; the day President Roosevelt had read his moving statement assuring Finland of "the respect and warm regard of the people and the Government of the United States."

Reaction to the Hull statement from U.S. isolationists was loud and immediate. Herbert Hoover demanded to know if the U.S. had "lost all sense of human and moral proportions." Said Senator Robert A. Taft: "We will be deeply ashamed in all time to come. . . ."

But many a U.S. citizen, committed to the defeat of Hitler, concurred in Cordell Hull's decision, regarded it as one of the cruel, heart-sickening choices that must be made in time of crisis. Their thoughts were expressed by Herbert Elliston, author of 1940's Finland Fights: "My heart and my head are in conflict over Finland. But the times are too crucial to permit divided loyalties. . . . My head supports Mr. Hull's statement."

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