Keep the Change

Until the Russian attack of 1939 put a moratorium on her World War I loan from the U.S., Finland had never missed a remittance day. She had paid the U.S. Government more than $8,000,000 (chiefly in interest) on the original $8,281,926.17 relief loan. After World War II she began paying again, still has $13 million to go. "These remarkable people," declared New Jersey's Senator H. Alexander Smith last winter, "appear determined in a world of forgotten principles to make their country an example of integrity."

The senator had a practical suggestion: why not let Finland use all future payments (about $400,000 a year) to send Finnish students to the U.S. and U.S. technicians to Finland? That was much like what the U.S. had done for China after the Boxer Rebellion. Last week, the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee said O.K., got the Smith resolution over its first congressional hurdle.

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