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Search - Finland To-Day

Finland ToDay
Author: Frank Fox

FINLAND TO-DAY BY FRANK FOX AUTHOR OF THE BALKAN PENINSULA, SWITZERLAND, PEEPS AT AUSTRALIA 1 BRITISH EMPIRE, OCEANIA. A. C. BLACK, LTD. 4, 5 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON W. i 1926 PREFACE THE Finns what is the key to an understanding of this race, with so much stubborn courage and yet so much cautious prudence so fertile in imagina tion and yet with s... more »uch a gift for methodical organ ization so strong in race pride and yet able to come from out a long period of subjection to a foreign Power with no painful record of revolts and martyrdoms I have sought that key by a visit to their country and by a study of their history and their art and literature, and can offer to my readers perhaps some clues, certainly not a clear explanation, of a people who remain still to me enigmatic. How can one explain a people who suggest at one time the Japanese, at another the Irish, at another the Scots, at another the Americans, at another the citizens of one of the little states of ancient Greece Certainly they cannot be classified. They are of their own genus. It will be worth while for students of mankind to keep an eye on these Finns not four millions in number if one leaves out of the count emigrants who have already made a small mark in the world and who are destined to make a much greater mark. Fate has placed them athwart Russia, whose development from Bolshevism will give the vi PREFACE chief interest to the future history of the twentieth century and this outpost position will keep Finland prominent on the worlds stage. By character they are eager to try out all those problems of post-war civilization which have to do with the reconciliation of democracy with authority, of capitalism with the rights of labour, of art with mechanical industry, of womans claim to civic equality with the institution of the family. Both in issues of foreign politics and of social politics, therefore, the world is likely to hear a great, deal of Finland in the future. But I wish to emphasize that this book does not pretend to offer more than a travellers impressions of the Finns and Finland. Statements in it of historical or economic fact are, to the best of my knowledge, accurate. The restcriticisms, opinions, surmises are those of an observer who does not speak the Finnish tongue and had to rely much upon interpreters and Films who spoke English. Fortunately English is very generally spoken by educated Finns with others, inter preters helped. To know what the others i. e. the people of merely elementary education thought was, to my mind, essential. On which point, a memory from another land. I was seeking once to know what the Arabs in a Near East territory were thinking and saying on a certain subject. An excellent interpreter helped PREFACE vii me to get the views of many notables priests, merchants, officials, journalists. But he made a meek protest when I sought his aid to get bazaar gossip at first hand. It was in the days before Angora had made the wearing of a bowler hat a test of sound nationalism, and every good Moslem wore the fez. The fez, like the silk hat which used to be a badge of British respectability, needs frequent ironing to keep it shaped and comely. The little shops where the fez is ironed are the great gossip centres of the East. My interpreter objected to my plan of haunting these places whilst he translated to me what was said. These people are of no importance at all, he pleaded. They will say nothing valuable. Nevertheless we listened to the gossip, and there were good gleanings valuable evidence to check and to explain the statements of more responsible people. In Finland, as elsewhere, I have sought to get some knowledge from the talk of the commonpeople. They may know less, but their talk among them selves is frank talk. Some of the matter in this book has been published in The Nineteenth Century and After The National Review, and Blue Peter. The courtesy of their Editors in assenting to republieation is acknowledged...

ISBN-13: 9781406705560
ISBN-10: 140670556X
Publication Date: 3/15/2007
Pages: 232
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Stevenson Press
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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