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In the rules and regulations for the Protective Corps was contained the clause that they were only to turn out at the orders of the lawful police. The Government, from which the representatives of the Labour Party had withdrawn after the dissolution of the Lantdag, established its police-school in the country near the town of Borgå, where a mounted troop of 200 men was trained to be ready to be sent out in an emergency to stop revolts in any part of the country. The institution of protective corps was undisguisedly supported by a couple of the provincial papers of the Labour Press. Yet the whole movement was never very extensive. The Protective Corps hardly felt equal to their great task, especially as a great shortage of arms was felt. For many years the import of arms to Finland had been prohibited, therefore there was only a small store of army rifles and a few more revolvers in the possession of the Corps. The 200 pupils in the police-school in November owned twelve rifles, the Protective Corps at Helsingfors in January, 1918, at the outbreak of the insurrection, were in possession of 100. And in the worst case the foe would be a Russian army corps fully provided with artillery and much else, besides the whole of the Russian Baltic fleet. The prospect was not a bright one.
In the meanwhile the various Protective Corps had appeared here and there, had prevented a robbery of butter destined for the hospitals, captured eighteen scoundrels at Helsinge, etc. This was the signal for the Socialists not only to withdraw from all co-operation, but also to declare war against the Protective Corps. In the chief organ of the Labour Press, "Työmies" (the Working-man), the leading article for the 28th August bore the following title: "The Civic Guard Ready to Attack the Working-man. An Organisation embracing the Whole of the Country is Started."
