The reported willingness of little Denmark, Norway and Sweden to

" guarantee " the reduced Finland is too pathetic! If they could do nothing for martyred Finland while that country was mobilised and fighting well, what can they do when she is immobilised and war-sick and weary of promises?
But for Britain (and France) too there is a grim and humbling lesson. It is to bar those familiar words " Too late," The 50,000 troops which we were willing to send to Finland a fortnight ago, if asked to do so by Finland, were no doubt a good substantial force, as our ideas go; but they were too few to relieve the Finns against the proletarian divisions of almost endless cannonfodder. and above all they were iiffered too late. Several divisions would have been useful, and an earnest of more. They might have induced Stalin to back Out, and certainly on very different and milder terms. Ton late!
The next phase will doubtless be one of intensive Red propaganda, stressing Moscow's leniency, and the wickedness of the Allies—with their sympathisers, the Church, Italy, etc.—In trying to encourage small peoples to resist the fate of the Baltic States. One shallow trump-card will be played for all it is worth—that whoever accepts the support of Britain and France suffers for it. Czechoslovakin, Poland, and now Finland. It would be very unlike the Moscow-Berlin propaganda machine not to exploit these coincidences vigorously. It would also be like the more credulous members of some European publics to believe this. Nevertheless, unpreperedness on the diptomatic and strategic fronts has been our forte in the past. In actual fighting we certainly are more ourselves.
Sacrificing Future for Present
The Swiss newspapers make no secret of the fact that they are appalled at the shortsightedness of Sweden, with Norway end•Denniark. The Lausanne journal, the Tribune. says that in Berlin the Russian successes have been hailed as if they were German. The Journal de Geneve says that the Copenhagen Conference " sacrifices the future for the sake of the immediate present." At the same time, neutral and Continental opinion does not absolve us of remissness and timidity.
The supposed "moderation" of Stalin's terms is, of course, heartless windowdressing. He will carry on Hitler's technique; consolidate what he has got, and on the basis of it make fresh cruel demands at the moment that suits him. And Sweden will be no more able to stop this than will little Jack Horner.
Any Soviet peace, of course, seals the doom of Finland. For us in the west it is a tragedy that the Soviet has pulled off this sensational escape, with credit and booty. They have got clear of the dangerous slope on which they had started, by the Nazi pact and the invasions of Poland and Finland. Now they can "isolate each issue," that is, smash one window at a time, and help themselves on the instalment system. It is Hitler's system, of which he boasts in "Mein Kamp/." • The sole way of liquidating such a chain-system of thefts and violations is to win the Total War. The winner of
that will alone be able to enforce restitution, and undo the long chapter of wicked injustice—short, of course, of bringing the myriad defenceless dead to life. Such a victory may not come on the Western Front at all. Students of war believe it is indeed unlikely to do so. It is probable that Hitler's programme is to stay obstinately put, and broadcast to the peoples: " We don't want to tight. We are content so far with things as they are. Call it quits. You are only impoverishing yourselves," Hence the importance of finding a back door to the Nazi-Communist citadel in the south-east. So only shall we pluck victory from.this sad diplomatic reverse, made possible by our half-and-half dilatoriness. We shall have resoundingly lost the war if the invaders are not cleared out of Poland root and branch, and if Czechs, Finns and Austrians cannot say what government they shall live under.
Passion Week for Christians
It is improbable that the Holy Father was aware of the likelihood of Finland's bowing the head to Molotov's will when he interviewed Ribbentrop at the Vatican the day before. For the acceptance came upon the world as a bombshell. It is a dark hour for the Pope, and hardly less dark for far-sighted Italians, and for. all who know, in Belloc's words, " Europe will return to the Faith or she will perish."
It is indeed Passion Week for Chrietians in the two-fold sense.
It may well come to pass that the voracious Russian Colossus may not meet its crucial check until it has seized a North Sea base and thereby encounters the British Navy and the French. It is not impossible that the final battle for the world and the world's soul may be amphibious, and may be staged in western waters -Britain and France versus the new " Nazi-Marxism " of Stalin-Hitler, both of whose slogans now are " Proletarians of all lands, unite" (see Ley's manifesto the other day).
"Neutrality " has, like Pontius Pilate of old, washed its hands of responsibility In the matter of Finland. It has been a pedantic., unheroic exhibition, and the guilty countries are now going to suffer the torments of fear, suspense, and a bad conscience. The war " interrupted trade" —one can hear the chink of the thirty pieces of silver. But that will not save them. " All young revolutionaries " are called on by the German Labour Minister to fight the prosperous countries, and get trade from them as they got " living room " from the Poles and material from the Czechs. Mr Sumner Welles's opinion that the war is about to enter on a new, intenser phase is on the eve of being endorsed by events.
Yet the fact remains that Russia is In sore straits for material and trained men after the recent drain. The antiGod State is still the weak leg of the alliance, and could not survive a determined push by Allied forces in her oil provinces by the Black Sea.
She is our remorseless enemy in every land, small and big—and we have not lifted a linger to vindicate or protect ourselves up to the moment of writing.