This entry in the Treaty of Peace refers to the settlement made at the Borgo Diet a few months earlier, and it is under this settlement, confirmed by deeds of a later date, that Finland claims her right to autonomy.  M. Stolypin recognizes the claim of Finland to autonomy, but refuses to recognize the binding force of the acts of the Borgo Diet on which alone it can legally be based.  This claim gives Finland no voice in her external relations.  All international treaties, including matters relating to the conduct of war (though laws on the liability of Finnish citizens to military service fall under the competency of the Finnish Diet), are matters common to Russia and Finland as one empire, one international unit, and are dealt with by the proper Russian authorities.  This is admitted by all Finlanders.  But M. Stolypin extended Russian authority by making it paramount in all matters which have a bearing on Russian or Imperial interests.

The attempt to curtail Finnish constitutional liberty has taken different forms.  Early in 1908 the Russian Council of Ministers, over which M. Stolypin presides, drew up a “Journal,” or Protocol, to which the Czar on June 2d gave his sanction.  The chief provisions of this Protocol were briefly as follows:  All legislative proposals and all administrative matters “of general importance,” before being brought to the Sovereign for his sanction, or, as is the case with Bills to be presented to the Diet, for his preliminary approval, as well as all reports drawn up by Finnish authorities for the Czar’s inspection, must be communicated to the Russian Council of Ministers.  The Council will then decide “which matters concerning the Grand Duchy of Finland also have a bearing on the interests of the empire, and, consequently, call for a fuller examination on the part of the Ministries and Government Boards.”  If the Council decide that a matter has a bearing on the interests of the empire the Council prepare a report on it, and, should the Council differ from the views taken up by the Finnish authorities, the Finnish Secretary of State, who alone should be the constitutional channel for bringing Finnish matters before the Sovereign’s notice, can do so only in the presence of the President of the Council of Ministers or another Russian Minister.  But in practise it has frequently happened that the Council send in their report beforehand, and the Czar’s decision is practically taken when the Finnish Secretary is permitted an audience.

This important measure was brought about by the exclusive recommendation of Russian Ministers.  Neither the Finnish Diet nor the Senate nor the Secretary of State for Finland, who resides in St. Petersburg, was consulted or had the slightest idea of what was going on before the Protocol was published in Russia.  It has never been promulgated in Finland, and no Finnish authority has been officially advised of it.  The whole matter has been treated as a private affair between the Czar and his Russian Ministers.