Though her capital, Helsingfors, is but twelve hours by rail
from Petrograd, Finland knows as little of the interior of Russia as people
do in England.

The policy of the Russian Government, on the other hand, has been marked
by that inconsistency, political blindness, and arbitrariness which one
expects from an irresponsible bureaucracy. For ninety years Finland was
left alone to work out her own salvation, entirely apart from that of the
rest of the Empire; and then suddenly it was discovered that her coasts
were of the highest strategical importance, and that she was developing a
commercial and industrial system in dangerous competition with the tender
plant of commerce and industry in Russia itself. The Slavophils raised an
outcry, and the decree went out that the Russian whale should swallow this
active and prosperous little Jonah. The former policy was really as stupid,
though less cruel, than the latter. Had there been anything like that
steady political tradition and wide political experience in Russia which we
can draw upon in England, the Imperial Government would have from the first
endeavoured to draw Finland closer to the Empire, not by bands of steel and
iron but by the more delicate and more permanent ties of considerateness,
affection, and self-interest. It is political stupidity, based upon
ignorance and inexperience, and not inhumanity, which is the real
explanation of Russia's unfortunate relations with her subject peoples
during the past century. Moreover, the political machinery which has
hitherto served her own internal needs is the worst possible instrument for
dealing with provinces which possess a full measure of Western political
consciousness together with the traditions of political liberty. Russia,
therefore, requires representative institutions not merely for the
political education of her own people and as a check upon bureaucratic
tyranny and incompetency, but also in order that she may adopt some fair
and _consistent_ policy towards her subject nationalities.

It may be optimistic, but I cannot help feeling that the present war will
do much for Russia, much for Finland, much for Poland. Russia is
fighting to defend a small nation against oppression, she is fighting
a life-and-death struggle with the military bureaucracy which we call
"Germany" for the moment, she is fighting on behalf of "liberty" and of the
"scraps of paper" upon which the freedom of States and individuals depends.
All