FINLAND: Paid in Full

Finland’s last “golden schooner” slid into Russian waters last week. Named for the bright brass and copper alloy used for its fittings, the schooner meant gold for Russia in another sense: it was the final payment of doughty Finland’s $570 million reparations debt to Russia. Finland thus lived up to a reputation established as the only World War I debtor nation which punctually made its payments to the U.S.

For eight years the Finns, their territory reduced 12% by Russia’s annexation of Karelia and Petsamo province, have worked in shipyards, lumber camps, factories and foundries to meet the harsh Russian levy. They have delivered, among other things, 300 paper mills, 7,000 locomotives and freight cars, countless miles of cable, electric motors by the truckload, scores of thousands of prefabricated wooden houses, huge river barges for the Volga, and a 573-ship merchant marine.

The country’s economy is now almost wholly geared to Russia. Under a new trade agreement, the Finns will continue to deliver goods to Russia. In exchange, they will get whatever goods (wheat, fodder, gasoline, oil, fertilizers) the Russians see fit to spare them.