"Why should I do that, which might mean weeks of delay, when I've got a perfectly good plane?"
"You haven't got a plane. Goering gave this plane to me. but for goodness' sake don't let's wrangle about side issues. The situation is this. Russia has demanded that Finland shall give her bases and receive garrisons of Red troops. If Finland agrees, she will never again be in a position to fight Russia and will be reduced to the state of a Russian province. That has got to be stopped somehow."
"I suppose you think you're such a hell of a guy that directly he Soviet agents report your arrival in Helsinki Stalin will get a fit of the jitters and throw his hand in?"
"Don't be facetious, Freddie, or keep interrupting me. What I can do is to persuade the Finns to fight. I've got here the whole low down on the Red Army and Air Force, showing their real weakness. Once the Finns see these papers they'll realize that they’ve got a sporting chance."
"What, a mere handful of them against fifteen million armed Reds?"
"Yes. I don't suggest that they can march on Moscow but I do believe they can hold out until help reaches them from the other Scandinavian countries or the Allies.
"I don't suppose you know much about Finland, Freddie few English people do. The Finns are grand fighters; they showed that in their War of Independence when with little else but shot guns the Finnish farmers drove thousands of Red guards out of their country and at last made it their own. The fate of education and civilization in Finland is very high indeed. They are individualists in the best sense and have a passionate love of freedom. After a hundred years of Tsarist tyranny they managed to throw off the Russian yoke; for the past twenty years they have enjoyed real liberty, living in peace and well being. Now their liberty is threatened again.
"Think of those Finnish families, living just as our own people do at home; well fed, well clothed, enjoying their sport, books, music, cinemas; able to do and say just what they like without any dread of secret police spying upon them and dragging them off to prison or execution. Then think of what we know of Russia the dirt, the poverty, the forced labour, the constant fear of husbands and wives that they may be separated over night never to see each other again or one of them arrested on a false charge and condemned without even a hearing by some secret tribunal. The Finns are a little people but they are decent folk; they represent everything for which Britain and France are fighting. How can we allow them to be made slaves again when we have a chance to save them?"
The plane was still climbing and Gregory paused for a moment to glance at Freddie's set face, then he went on evenly: "That is my first reason a sentimental one, perhaps. Now listen to my second. It is the thing that you yourself spoke of just now our duty. It's our duty to help win this war. If we can help more by temporarily abandoning routine and acting on our own, common sense tells us we should do so. Remember Nelson putting his blind eye to the telescope? Well, we're not even ignoring the orders of our superiors; just remaining a few days longer than is strictly necessary on the list of `missing', that's all. Germany is getting supplies from Russia; not in great quantity, perhaps, but you can bet that she's getting the things she needs most urgently even if they come through on a hay cart. If Russia has to fight Finland she'll have to give first place to her own war and the supply of vital war materials which she sends to Germany will dry up. If we can get the Finns to fight we shall indirectly have extended the blockade along another fifth of Germany ’s frontiers, and that's as good as a major victory. Therefore you can serve your country infinitely better by taking me to Finland than you can by going home to report for routine duty."
Freddie had straightened out and the compass showed that he was heading not north east but west for England; so Gregory threw his last reserves into the battle by continuing: "Then I want you to think of the future for a moment. What is Russia ’s real game? I talked to Goering for hours last night and I meant a lot of the things I said but others were so much hot air. The original programme of the Bolsheviks was world revolution, and they established the Comintern which financed subversive activities in every country with a view to carrying it out. But Lenin found the job too much for him. Russia was in such a ghastly state that he couldn't pull it together without securing help from the outside world; so he announced the
N.E.P. New Economic Plan by which the Bolsheviks proclaimed that they had altered their policy. Private internal trading was to be allowed again and the Soviet was prepared to recognize capitalistic governments in other countries and to live in peace with them. From that time onward the Comintern 'faded into the background. Nevertheless, Lenin made it 'abundantly clear that the N.E.P. was only a means to an end. He said in public speeches before his death that once Russia was on her feet again they must revert to their original policy and endeavour to bring about world revolution by any means in their power, including conquest by the Red armies.
"Twenty years have elapsed since then. Russia is much stronger now. In recent times the Comintern has become active again and Stalin is beginning to show his hand. By his advance into Poland and his peaceful penetration into Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia he has already gobbled up millions of people and barred his western gates against any future attack by Germany, He hopes to give Germany enough food to keep her fighting for years, which may weaken us to near breaking point and weaken Germany to such an extent that when she does collapse the whole of middle Europe will fall into a state of anarchy. Then will come Stalin's day and the Bolsheviks will march in there, France was on the verge of a Communist revolution just before the Spanish war broke out in 1936. The Marxists may fly their Red flags in Calais and we should be in no state to stop them. With strikes at home and the whole force of Red subversive propaganda turned against us, impossible as it may seem now, we, too, might go Red and find ourselves the slaves of Moscow.
"It's up to us to try to avert such a peril by every means in our power. If we can occupy Russia with Finland and divert vital supplies from Germany we shall weaken Germany so that we are more quickly able to win our own war and yet leave her sufficiently strong to act as a bulwark against Russia. by inducing Finland to fight we shall also weaken Russia and with luck her slow, lumbering, growth into a world menace will be set back for years to come. Finland will be fighting Britain 's fight and the frontier of Christian civilization the right of every man, woman and child to justice, toleration and freedom to day lies not in the west, Freddie, but north east, on the Mannerheim Line."
Freddie Charlton pressed his right foot down on his rudder bar, bringing the plane round in a beautiful curve. "You're right," he said. "I m afraid I don't know much about such things and I've never quite looked at it that way before. You must be very tired, old boy; get some sleep. I'll take you to Helsinki."
"Thanks, old chap. I knew you'd understand directly I explained things; and even if we fail in our attempt I'm sure you'll never regret your decision." At last Gregory was able to relax and a few minutes later he was sound asleep.
As there was no longer any necessity for flying at a high altitude Freddie brought the plane down to 3,000 feet and headed for Danzig. The day was fine, and now that his wretched night was temporarily forgotten he was thoroughly enjoying being in the air again after his enforced three weeks on the ground.
On picking up Danzig he descended to 1,000 feet so that the German controls there could check him out of the country and report to Goering. Below him as he passed over the harbour he could see the tangled wreckage on the Westernplat Peninsula where the Polish garrison had held out so gallantly under a devastating bombardment from the German ships and shore batteries. Altering his course twenty degrees nearer to north he crossed the great, 150 mile long bay west of Konigsberg, picked up Libau on the Latvian coast, followed the coast line for a while and thence flew over the Estonian islands.