THE FINNS RESISTING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 46, 4 December 1939, Page 5

THE FINNS RESISTING.

SOVIET THRUST IN NORTH. NAVAL BATTLE OFF HANKO. LONDON, December 3. A Russian Army communique states that Soviet troops have advanced 16 miles on the Karelian Isthmus. The retreating Finns burned villages and forcibly evacuated the occupants. Marshal Voroshilov is commanding on the Finland front.

It is officially stated in Helsinki that Finnish troops captured 1200 Russian soldiers. One Finnish warship was sunk during an engagement with the Red Fleet off Hanko. Soviet aeroplanes machine-gunned sailors struggling in the water.

It is reported, from Bergen that the Finns are fighting doggedly in the extreme north.

It was officially announced in Helsinki that more than 35 Russian tanks had been destroyed in Karelia yesterday. It is also claimed that at least 19 Soviet aeroplanes have been shot down.

The Russian troops are only 10 miles from the Norwegian border in the north, where 800 Finns are opposing a force of several thousands. The Finns are burning houses and slaughtering stock and piling their belongings on sleighs for transportation to Norway. Burning buildings are visible from the Norwegian frontier, where streams of women and children are constantly arriving, accompanied by food-laden lorries. The fleeing population is determined that the Russians will find the countryside bare. A Finnish official communique says that two Russian companies in the south were wiped out, largely by the use of the new Finnish automatic rifle, which fires as rapidly as a machine-gun and is specially constructed for forest fighting.

Fighting in Karelia. The Russians again bombed the port of Hanko, and other towns in eastern and western Finland. , The Finns retired slightly along the Karelian frontier. Finnish troops recaptured Petsamo before they were again driven out by the Russians. The Finns marched throughout the night along roads deep in snow. They surprised the Russians, who did not dream that a counter attack would come so soon. Finnish aircraft co-operated, heavily bombing the Russian positions. The fate of the Finnish force cut off near Petsamo is unknown. The Finns claim that the Terjoki Government controls only a few square miles of no-man’s-land in front of the Finnish lines.

After fierce fighting on the Karelian Isthmus, the Finns claim-, to have repulsed the Russians in all but a few ■places. 1 A Russian communique claims advances at several points, and admits the loss o'f two aeroplanes. Previously the Russian people had been told that aerodromes only were being bombed, and were regaled with the utterances of the puppet Government which the Soviet set up just inside "the Finnish border. M. Molotov is expected to use these utterances as coming from an oppressed minority, and march in to free it.

A number of Swedes tried to. enrol in the Finnish Army at the legation in Stockholm. The Swedish Government has appealed to the people to remain calm.

Iceland, which beenmo independent in 1918, has cancelled independence day celebrations as a mark of sympathy for Finland. The Finns admit the loss of Hogland, and the Russian occupation of Seiskaari Peninsula.

Russian troops captured the monastery of Petchcnga, 10 -miles south of Petsamo.

The Riussians are reported to have machine-gunned their own troops at Tuclma, as a result of a disagreement between soldiers and officers, the latter drawing revolvers against the former.