Finland's Moment

Peace for Finland seemed as remote as ever last week, after President Risto Ryti chose pro-Axis Edvin Johan Linkomies to organize a new Cabinet.

A Swede-baiter and vice president of Helsinki University, Professor Linkomies patched together a coalition Cabinet, with toeless* Sir Karl Henrik Wolther Ramsay as Foreign Minister. Sir Karl's title was given to him by the British, but any personal leanings he may have toward the Allies have not up to now affected his view that Finland had no choice but to stay on Germany's side. Fortnight ago, speaking as Supply Minister in the former Cabinet, Sir Karl re-emphasized one of the facts which explain Finland's continuance in the war: "Germany is the only country able to ship grain to Finland."

Even more significant was the inability of liberty-loving Social Democrat Vainc Hakkila, Speaker of the Finnish Parliament, to form a coalition government. Hakkila was one of the chief exponents of an early peace with Russia, and a Cabinet headed by him might well have included Juho Paasikivi, onetime Minister to Stockholm and Moscow, who has the confidence of Joseph Stalin, and may yet be available for negotiations.

Still on the record was President Ryti's recent pledge to fulfill his Party's promise to withdraw from the war when "the propitious moment arrives." That moment evidently had not arrived.

Reportedly stripped by his Russian captors on the Karelian Isthmus in February 1940, Ramsay was told to escape if he could. He did, reaching the Finnish lines with frozen feet. His toes were amputated.

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