The Finnish Collection of Decrees 65/1918 pp.44-46.
The Senate of Finland
has upon the motion of Department of Internal Affairs, delivered the following Declaration:
To the People of Finland.
After German troops, at the request of the Government, have landed on Finnish soil to assist in expelling of Russian troops and Bolsheviks, the Government wishes to make the following generally known among the population of the country:
Although German troops will, whenever possible, to use provisions and other material they have brought with themselves, it might occur that procurement of food and other supplies will turn out to be unavoidable. As Government now urges the population willingly to fulfill the requirements that might this way arise, it will also clearly state that the State of Finland will remunerate all the materials provided for the German troops, as well as all the damages they might cause.
All requisitions for the German troops are communicated through appropriate food staff boards or other municipal authorities. All deliveries are acknowledged with a receipt, of form and content approved by the Finnish government, carrying the due signature and official seal and showing the list of the delivered goods and their values. To illustrate the type of requisitions the German troops might need, the following list is provided:
1) quarters for troops and stables for their horses;
2) food for troops and fodder for their horses;
3) all kinds of carriages and harnesses and assistant personnel to work as coachmen, guides, messangers, oars- and ferrymen, as well as for construction work on roads, railways, bridges or in fortifications, and to blockade rivers and harbours;
4) disposal of houses and buildings for military operations and for road, railway and bridge construction, allotting materials for camps and resting places and fortifications and for blockading of rivers and harbours;
5) supplying of fuel and straw for camps and resting places;
6) providing other assistance and material, which in unusual cases might be needed for military purposes, especially material for clothing and fortifications, medicines and bandaging material insofar there are suitable persons and available supplies in the municipality.
If there is no food otherwise accessible for the troops, they can make requisitions for livestock, grain, oats, hay and straw. The amount of foodstuff thus delivered in form of a purchase or requisition to the military, will be at due time returned in nature by the German High Command.
Owners of ships or boats are obliged, whenever required, to set them at disposal of the military command for war purposes. The owners are compensated for the loss of their earnings or loss of the vehicle.
To fulfill the need of horses for troops, all horse owners are at war times obliged to yield up suitable horses for war purposes. They will be remunerated with a full compensation assessed by a person with expertise on the matter. The following persons are, however, exempted:
a) state official insofar horses are needed for their official duties, as well as doctors and veterinarians in case the horses are necessary for carrying out their professions
b) mail carriers and innkeepers isofar they need horses to regular mail transportation and stagecoach service;
c) city fire brigades.
The railway administration is obliged to:
1) to furnish necessary fittings into the railway cars for transportation of troops and horses;
2) arrange transportation for troops and the material;
3) set its personnel and supplies for use in construction and operating on the railways.
The railway administration is also obliged to follow the orders of the military command in arranging, continuing, interrupting or resuming operating on the railways.
In case these orders are not obeyed, the military command is authorized to carry them out on their own decision.
The Reds (the radical left wing of the Social Democratic Party) seized power from the legal government in southern Finland on January 28, 1918. They sought and got both political and military support from the new Russian Bolshevik government in St. Petersburg. Bolshevik sympathizers in Russian troops in Finland joined or assisted the local Red Guards. A treaty of friendship(Heninen) was concluded between the revolutionary governments of Russia and Finland on March 1, 1918.
The Peace Treaty at Brest-Litovsk(Brigham Young University Library), on March 3, 1918, between Germany and Soviet Russia also stipulated the withdrawal of Russian troops in Finland and denied them any involvement in Finnish affairs. This made it possible to request German help to suppress insurgency. This was secured by a peace treaty between Germany and Finland on March 7, 1918, which included stipulations that the Finnish negotiators only reluctantly approved.
So the landing of the German naval detachment (Ostsee-Division) in Hanko went without difficulties. The Finnish Government, which had fled to the city of Vaasa, some 400 km from Helsinki, declared to the population that the German troops have Government authorization and every assistance should be given to them. The troops then quickly marched from Hanko, some 130 km west from the city, to Helsinki. Before their arrival, the militarily powerful Russian Baltic Fleet, now taken over by the Bolsheviks, sent emissars from Helsinki to Rear Admiral Meurer in Hanko. An agreement on peaceful retrieval of the Russian navy was signed on April 5, 1918.
Helsinki fell, actually with a minimal resistance, to the Germans on April 12, 1918. Simultaneously Finnish government troops, led by General Mannerheim, advanced from the north. Members of the revolutionary top government fled to Russia. Most of the Red Guards, however, fell into the hands of government troops and were imprisoned. Both the insurgency and its aftermath created great animosity and disturbed the peaceful development of society. The Senate moved back to Helsinki on May 6, 1918. Pictures of of the German advance (Grosser Bilderatlas des Weltkrieges).
After the war groups of eminent people sought ways to secure the independence of Finland. The role of Germany was seen pivotal. Setting up a monarchy was regarded as a solution to this. The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published several appeals by eminent people both supporting monarchy, as of May 14, and republic, as of May 27, 1918.
The Svinhufvud senate prepared a monarchical constitution and remitted it to the Diet. It was, however, not adopted. The government then interpreted the situation so that the stipulations of the old Swedish 1772 form of Government are valid. The old law recognized only a king as a head of state. A request, adopted only by less than half (but by majority, anyway) of the Diet, was presented to a German Prince, Friedrich Karl. He never directly accepted becoming a monarch. When Germany's defeat was imminent in December 1918, he finally turned the request down.