ATROCITIES ON BOTH SIDES
The White Guards, commanded by General Mannerheim, fought the revolutionists with varying success but without achieving a decisive victory. Several towns in the south were the scene of prolonged battles in which many lives were lost, notably Tammerfors, the important industrial centre, where fierce fighting raged throughout the second half of March. The factory districts in the north were also the scene of stubborn fighting. A number of women were seen in the ranks of the Red Guards.
The two warring factions created a reign of "Red" and "White" terror in the country. Both committed frightful atrocities. On April 17, Oskari Tokoi, the Commissionary for Foreign Affairs in the Socialist Cabinet, protested to all the powers against the manner in which General Mannerheim treated his Red Guard prisoners. He pointed out that, while the Red Guards regarded the captured White Guards as prisoners of war, the Government troops, having taken a number of prisoners, shot all the officers and every fifteenth man of the rank and file. On the other hand, the corpses of many White Guards were found unspeakably mutilated.
Immediately after the outbreak of the Socialist rebellion, the official Government conceived the idea of appealing for foreign military aid against the revolutionists. On Jan. 30 such an appeal was reported to have been sent to Sweden. The cause of White Finland had many sympathizers in that country. The Finnish White Guards had a recruiting office in Stockholm, and a number of Swedish volunteers fought in their ranks. A considerable portion (12 per cent.) of the Finnish population are Swedes, mostly members of the higher classes. In addition, the two countries have common historical memories, for Finland was a Swedish province for six centuries, from the time of Erik VIII., King of Sweden, till the Russian annexation in 1809.
The Swedish Government did not, however, elect to intervene. It is not certain whether Stockholm refused its assistance because Finland refused to cede the Aland Islands to the Swedes as a compensation for their services, or because, as Mr. Branting asserts, Sweden was to intervene "as the creature and ally of Germany." The only step the Swedes took was to send a military expedition to the Aland Islands, in response to several appeals from their population, which is mostly Swedish. This measure was decided upon by the Swedish Parliament on Feb. 16 and was effected two or three days later.
The Aland Archipelago, consisting of about ninety inhabited islets and situated between Abo on the Finnish coast and Stockholm, belongs to Finland. Its strategic importance for Sweden is aptly characterized by an old phrase which describes it as "a revolver aimed at the heart of Sweden." The mission of Sweden's troops was to clear the islands, by moral suasion if possible, from the bands of Russian soldiers and Finnish White and Red Guards which for some time had been terrorizing the population. The Bolshevist garrison offered stubborn resistance to the landing of the Swedish forces.
THE GERMAN INVASION
At noon on March 2 a German detachment occupied the Aland Islands. The next day the German Minister at Stockholm informed the Swedish Government that Germany intended to use these islands as a halting place for the German military expedition into Finland, undertaken at the request of the Finnish Government for the purpose of suppressing the revolution. He gave assurances that Germany sought no territorial gains in effecting the occupation and would not hinder the humanitarian work of the Swedish Supervision Corps in the islands. On March 22 the Main Committee of the Reichstag rejected, by 12 votes against 10, the motion of the Independent Social Democrats to evacuate the Aland Islands and cease interfering with the internal affairs of Finland.
