Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/59

 At this time there was much talk of a split within the ranks of the Labour Party. It was said that some of its more important members were beginning to lose their enthusiasm for the Russian anarchy, and to realise that the social revolution of the Bolsheviks, extended to Finland, would mean the destruction of this country. And undoubtedly there were signs that the week of the strike, with its experience and consequences that so little benefited the party, had sobered down several persons. But this fact could lead to no result now the Red Guard had once for all been let loose, and the continuance of the revolution proclaimed. Those who could not go to this length had to content themselves with silence or faint protests and retreat. In spite of a bourgeoisie majority in the Lantdag, and a purely bourgeoisie government, in spite of the scruples .of the Socialists themselves, the country had now been delivered up to the two great anarchist and terrorist organisations, the disbanding Russian army and the corps of the Red Guard.

The first task of the Government was to take measures for the re-establishment of order. It was met by almost insuperable obstacles. The force for the maintenance of order, the police, had, as stated before, disappeared, and in its place was found a local militia dependent on the Labour Party. This militia was very soon forced to a complete submission to all the demands of the Red Guard. It was therefore necessary to establish a new force, a force for the maintenance of order that would be independent of all parties, a national militia. Before the problem of this strong force for the maintenance of order could be solved—and its solution in the Lantdag on positive lines became the signal for the outbreak of the insurrrection in January—the Protective Corps had to be strengthened and armed. The already mentioned police school near Borgå had been stormed during the