OCR
X.A.No.11 for October 1952. FINLAND AT THE BND OF THE REPARATIONS. In the first days of September the last train of reparations goods left Finland for the reparations station of Vainikkala, and on September 19th, the closing date of the whole reparations prograume the last ten ships out of a total of 686 ships to be furnished to the USSR entered the Soviet waters. With that, Finland had shown to the world an extraoredinary example of courage end patriotism under the most adverse conditions. The reparations burden had been heavy indeed. In 1944 the Soviets demanded 300 Million Dollars worth of goods as res parations, to be paid in a period of six years. But they demanded these goods et 1938 world prices, which made a fiction of the Dollar sum from the beginning. Furthermore the Soviets continuously uppea this sum, by demanding such extraordinary quality as had not been foreseen. They changed continuously their speei= fications. If a reparation furniture arrived only seconds late at Veinikkela, they imposed heavy fines, which finally amounted to 180 Million Dollars. The exacting nature of the Soviet demands put such a heavy strain on the country, that even the Soviets had to admit that the fulfilling capacity of the country was impaired. Faced with practical collapse of Finland, the Soviets finally hed to cancel the fines and to permit the reparations to be extended to eight years instead of six. Despite this, Finnish Econopists have calculated, that with the quality and price juseling of the Soviets, the countru finally paid 570 million Dois lars of reparations, instead of the 300 miilion as officially sald. The load nevertheless wa 80 heavy, that at times 10% of the Finnish national income had been used for that purposes This ineredible feat had to be accomplished at a time when the Finnish treasury was furthermore strained by the arrival of almost half a million refugees from the areas ceded to the USSR, and that Finaland had to carry the burden after a de strue=tive war and under the most apalling economic strains of the immediate post-war period, Without wanting to dininish the heroism of the Finns it should be nevertheless pointed out, that they could not have withstood the strain, had it not been for the very generous outside help they received. The first to help where the Swedes, later on in a very generous manner the Americans and the World Bank. This help was the more needed, sin ce the merchandise depanded by the USSR was mostly one not normally demands where chips, machinery and electric cables, goods for : 42.