Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Blaðsíða 42

32
LE NORD
the home country by individuals and by conducted parties.
Individuals have of course visited their friends and relations at
home all the time. The first conducted tour was arranged al-
ready during the Russian rule in the summer of 1912, but both
these activities have increased very much since 1920 because
of Finland’s position as an independent State. They have added
considerably to the country’s tourist traffic, and in the summer
there have sometimes been more than ten such tours, while in
the winter there have been one or two. The total number of
Finns visiting the home country may be estimated at from 1500
to 2500 annually. When spending the whole summer here they
have usually travelled about a good deal, and in this way they
have played a considerable part in establishing new and main-
taining old contacts. The actual money thus spent by them,
which has been estimated at a maximum sum of 25,000,000
marks in one year, has also been of importance to Finnish
economy.
These excursionists have regularly been given elaborate and
friendly receptions, a fact which shows that the attitude of the
home country to emigration has become more favourable.
The 40 p. c. who came back to remain at home, as it was
once hoped all the emigrants would do, have been likened by
Akseli Járnefelt-Rauanheimo, who did so much to help the
emigrants, to bees who leave the hive to gather honey and re-
turn with their store. Though some of them may have failed
completely in their endeavours overseas, yet they have always
brought back some “honey” — experience as well as money —
thus to some extent compensating for the loss sustained by the
home country through emigration. In general it may be said that
these emigrants have not received special attention or material
assistance, though in our work for citizens overseas we have tried
to treat them with sympathy.
On the whole, our emigration has here been considered from
the aspect of its practical advantages for the home country, but
this in itself is not sufficient when estimating it as a historical
phenomenon; indeed public opinion has veered from the negative
to the positive because the positive sides only appeared later.
In the early stages of emigration, and when it unexpectedly
increased very much, the various moral drawbacks were especial-
ly noticed, as was also the loss of population and labour, a serious