Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1939, Page 492
482 LE NORD
Finland opposite Balticport be leased to her for use as a naval
base; and
that the Non-Aggression Pact between the USSR and Finland
be reinforced by certain supplementary guarantees.
These arrangements, it is asserted, would ensure the security
of the north-western frontier of the USSR and of Leningrad,
and further, they would create confidential and friendly rela-
tions between the USSR and Finland. This latter is given by
leading Soviet statesmen as the aim, at which they are striving.
It is also, naturally, the aim on the Finnish side. For from the
Finnish point of view a situation, in which relations with the
USSR remained continuously and chronically unsettled, would
be untenable. Nevertheless, in striving for a permanent and settled
arrangement, heed must be paid to the establishment of confi-
dence on both sides and adjustments avoided, which in practice
would not lead to lasting situation but might come to denote a
kind of northern Versailles, in other words, merely sow the seeds
of future discords.
The Finnish Prime Minister, A. K. Cajander, in his speech
of November 4, remarked on the subject of the USSR proposals:
“It can be regarded as important for the USSR that certain is-
lands in the Gulf of Finland cannot even temporarily be occu-
pied and fortified by any foreign Power, seeing that they lie in
front of Kronstadt and of Luga bay, an important USSR naval
base in the south-eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. It is
similarly true that the Finnish frontier on the Isthmus is within
artillery range of Leningrad, so that in theory one can envisage
the shelling of the former capital of Russia from, for example,
Kuokkala.”
These words reveal the readiness of Finland for farreaching
concessions in matters, which have so far been looked upon as
satisfactorily settled in other ways.
Already in the Dorpat Peace Treaty the significance of the
islands in the Gulf of Finland from the point of view of the
security of both parties was taken into account. At the request
of the USSR the islands Seiskari, Lavansaari, Peninsaari and
Tytarsaari were completely demilitarised. Thus, under this agree-
ment Finland was forbidden to use these islands in peace-time
for any military purposes whatever; she could not station troops
on them or arm or fortify them. The arrangement, however,
was restricted to times of peace and was based solely on an agree-
ment between Finland and the USSR. Against this, the intention