March 13th 1940

Wednesday March 13th

It is not by any means the sole purpose of this diary to record allied successes alone, or to indulge in cheap jubilation such as the Germans employ every time they sink a rowing boat. Today has been far from a day of rejoicing, it has been the blackest since the fall of Warsaw. Finland has capitulated after a defence worthy of Thermopylae or Roncesvalles to the most cruel terms on Russia’s part. Viipuri, the Karelian Isthmus, Hangoe and the Mannerheiur line have to be surrendered by April 10th, and they undertake not to join in any alliance against Russia.

But what is most horrible of all is that an Allied Expeditionary Force was and had been ready since February 26th to sail for Finland, but was baulked by Norway and Sweden, who while professing all the tenets of the League of Nations and to be Finland’s best friends, refused to allow Allied help to pass through their territory. Perhaps, after the Munich Affair*, it may be said that it all becomes us to indulge in recrimination, but one may wish with complete sincerity that they may never live to regret it, as we have regretted Czechoslovakia. We tried to serve God and Mammon then, but it did not do anyone any good, unless it was that it taught us the terrible lesson that to serve God we tread no easy way.

Added to this major calamity Sir Michael O’Dwyer, an ex–Commissioner for India was shot dead by an Indian assassin at the Caxton Hall. This was presumably  vengeance for the Amritsar affair twenty years ago. I hope it may be no worse than that.

*Failed act of appeasement of September 1938. See the Munich Agreement page on Wikipedia.