Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Síða 37

FINNISH EMIGRATION
27
smaller numbers went to Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa,
Russia, Sweden, and some other countries.
It is estimated that 40 p. c. of the total number of Finnish
emigrants have returned to Finland. Since Finland became in-
dependent, the percentage of returned emigrants has approached
100. If allowance is made for the natural increase of population,
it may be assumed that there are at present 450,000 Finns in the
United States and 50,000 in Canada, a total of about half a mil-
lion.
As mentioned above, most of the emigrants came from the
province of Vaasa. After that, the provinces of Oulu (Uleáborg)
and Turku-Pori (Ábo-Björneborg) contributed the largest con-
tingent of emigrants. Most of them were country-dwellers, and
belonged to the poorer classes of the agricultural population, and
the majority of them were young men. More detailed information
can be obtained from the report of the Government Committee
on Emigration of 1918.
From 1874 the emigrants were conveyed to Hull from Vaasa
and other Ostro-Bothnian ports, as well as from Turku (Ábo),
by the Finnish Vaasa North-Sea Steamship company. In 1883 a
special Finnish line, Suomen Höyrylaiva Osakeyhtiö (the Finnish
Steamship Company) was started between Finland and England.
It has prospered chiefly by the emigrant traffic, taking most of
its emigrant passengers on board at Hanko (Hangö). In the early
stages of this emigrant traffic, and especially about the turn of
the century, when home conditions caused the flow of emigrants
to be exceptionally large, it was only to be expected that the
passage should have been attended with a certain amount of
difficulty and hardship for the passengers, hardships which the
Finnish companies endeavoured to overcome, and which they
in some measure succeeded in ameliorating.
The value of Finnish emigration from a shipping point of
view is seen from the fact that numerous foreign shipping com-
panies have competed for the resultant traffic, especially since
1918. Among these, the most notable is the Swedish-American
Line at Gothenburg, which since 1920 has placed its modern
vessels at the disposal of the Finnish public through its represen-
tative at Helsinki, Oy Victor Ek Ab.
The Finnish pioneers who settled on the Delaware River have
left only a name and the knowledge of their important contri-
bution to American history. Some remnants of those who went