World Friendship Project Scrapbook

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Finland.

Finland is known to most American boys by the remarkable Finnish runners, such as Nurmi and Ritola, who have visited our country. Yet Finland, like most countries, has a great past. It maintained its language, customs, and nationality under years of Russian rule. Its climatee is rigorous. The soil is not rich but the people are great. Finnish literature is valuable for its rich stores of natioal poetry. Longfellows' "Hiawatha" is in style an imitation of the Finnish epic.

The Rotary Club of Helsinki sent us a beautiful polished stone for our lodge. The nations of the world do not seem to consider trouble or expense when the opportunity arises to express friendship for the United States. The stone from Finland is an evidence of this. Shall not the boys of the United States meet this friendliness with an equallly friendly response?

Photograph from Frederick Simpich

[Photograph of Helsingfors, Finland shows a crowd of people along a harbor]

HELSINGFORS, FINLAND, CAPITAL OF THE NEW REPUBLIC OF THE NORTH Like the peoples in the sister republic of Czechoslovakia and Poland, the Finns are anxious to cast aside the Swedish name of their Capital city and have it known henceforth as Helsinki. With its fortress, Sveaborg, Helsingfors has a population of nearly 200,000 and is the seat of a famous university.

HELSINGIN ROTARY [Rotary International HELSINGFORS ROTARY KLUBI Insignia] KLUBB N:o 2470

ROTARY CLUB OF HELSINKI - HELSINGFORS SUOMI FINLAND

Helsinki, July 14th. 1930.

Rotary Club of Greenville, Greenville. South Carolina. U.S.A.

In reply to your kind letter of April this year we herewith beg to inform you that we for some days ago have sent you a stone for the projected Rock Lodge on the shores of Lake Rotary at a Boys' Camp.

We hope that you will receive the stone in good order and are

Rotarily Yours Rotary Club of Helsinki-Helsingfors [Illegible Signature of Secretary]

[Picture of Finland army members in front of Senate House]

Photograph courtesy Legation of Finland

WHEN FINLAND CELEBRATED ITS INDEPENDENCE AT HELSINGFORS

Members of the civil guard and the army are gathered before the Senate House in commemoration of General Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim's solemn entry into Helsingfors in May, 1918. Though Finland declared its independence on December 6, 1917, a short period of bloody civil strife, complicated by foreign interests, followed before its separation from Russia was complete. Senate Square, flanked by edifices in the classical style, is architectecturally the most imposing section of Helsingfors. Many of the fine buildings were designed by C.L. Engel, known as the "father of Finnish architecture."

[Picture overlooking Helsingfors]

Photographs by J. and P. Parikas

OVERLOOKING HELSINGFORS

To Americans, Finland's capital is Helsingfors, but the Finns know it as Helsinki. Similar changes of official names of capitals have taken place in several countries in Europe since the World War. Prague, in Czechoslovakia, has become Praha, the Poles are insisting upon Warszaw for Warsaw, the Esthonians ask that we think of Reval as Tallinn, and in January the Norwegians changed Christiania to Oslo.

[Map of Hungary]

Hungary.

Hunagry is a land of many peoples. Until the World War it was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 70% of its people are engaged in agriculture although Budapest andn Szeged have populations of 880,000 and 118,000 respectively.

This great country of Hungary is represented in our lodge by the Hungarian flag sent by the Rotary Club of Budapest. Read the courteous, friendly letter from that club. The booklet on Hungary is at the office.

[Picture of Hungary]

Panorama of Budapest (viewed from the Gellerthegy)

[Picture of Budapest]