UNDER ARMY RULE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 7, 20 October 1941, Page 5

UNDER ARMY RULE.

GOVERNMENT LEAVES MOSCOW. M. STALIN REMAINING. LONDON, October 18. A message from Stockholm says that Moscow is now under Army rule, and the Government has moved east, possibly to Kazan and more probably to Samara, but M. Stalin remains in Moscow with the Inner Defence Council. Men and women, and boys and girls in their teens, are answering the call to arms. The city is organised like Leningrad, almost every street forming a defence cell. The civilian population, unlike the Parisians, refrained from making .a panic-stricken rush from the city, and 95 per cent of Moscow’s population remains. It is stated that the British military mission left at the request of the Russian authorities.

“It is bold to prophesy about the fate of Moscow, but there seems no reason to expect its eai'ly fall.” Tho military expert of “The Times,” enunciating this view, says that the latest German thrusts still seem to be wedges, and while the forces and fortifications covering Moscow remain unbreached on a comparatively wide front Moscow is not likely to be captured. Moscow’s fate depends on whether the Russians can reorganise and hold off thrusts on narrow frontages before the Germans can bring up the main forces. A broadcast talk from Leningrad, relayed to Moscow, said: “Citizens of Moscow, take heart from us. Hitler in September gave an order to take Leningrad within three days, but for three weeks we have been attacking. We are driving the Germans from one fortified point after another. The Fascists are pressing hard to Moscow. Let us double our strength and achieve vietorv at whatever cost.”

BERLIN CONTRADICTS RUSSIANS. OREL AND KALININ STILL HELD. SUCCESS IN SOUTH REPORTED (Rec. it.2o a.in.) LONDON, Cot. 19. The Berlin radio denies that the Russians recaptured Orel and Kalinin and adds that fresh panzer units are arriving on the central front. Fighting is particularly heavy between Kalinin and Moscow and near Mojaisk. Dive-bomb-ers are constantly attacking the Soviet fortifications along the outer del cnees of Moscow. A German communique states: “Between the Sea of Azov and Donets the pursuit of the beaten enemy is continning successfully. S.S. units, after street and house fighting, lia\o taken tho town of Taganrog.”