81
"The Social Democracy are fighting indefatigably against militarism and our Party Meeting has distinctly made known that Finland, even as an independent State, does not require any standing army. Neither must, of course, Russian military be maintained in Finland as soon as its withdrawal is possible, and at any not after the conclusion of peace. But the labourers of Finland have not joined the bourgeois in their provocative demands that the military should be withdrawn immediately, in spite of the distressful shortage of food reigning in the country, which, of course, is further increased for the labourers by the presence of the military here," etc. etc.
It is a peculiar logic that runs through this document. The anti-militarists want to keep the soldiers, the starving ones wish to keep those back who are a drain on the supplies, and they who in the first place have prevented the realisation of Finland's liberty are greeted as those who have bestowed freedom on the country.
On the 26th January the Party Meeting appoint an "Executive Revolutionary Committee," "whose decisions and orders the organised labourers of Finland and their Guard Corps should obey." And in the leading paper, "Työmies," article upon article is produced in order to inflame the masses. The Government of the country is only mentioned in quotation marks, and about its proclamation to the whole people cited above it is said:—
