SWIFT SOVIET MOVES IN BALTIC CONTROL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 143, 18 June 1940, Page 7

SWIFT SOVIET MOVES IN BALTIC CONTROL.

ARMY MARCHES.

Three States Taken Over By Stalin. REASONS FOR ULTIMATUM. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Reecived 9.30 a.m.) LONDON", June 17. Following the Russian occupation of Lithuania by the Soviet, the exMinister of the Interior, M. Skueas, and the Chief of the Political Police are reported to have been arrestee?, states a message from Kaunas. It is stated they will be court-martialled. The Minister of War, M. Musteikis, is reported to have been dismissed. The Estonian Government has resigned, after accepting demands made by Russia, says a message from Tallinn. A Helsinki report published in Berlin says Russian troops have occupied i several Estonian towns and crossed the! frontier of Latvia. Aeroplane services between Helsinki and Riga (Latvia) have ceased. Latvia has also accepted Russian demands, says a Berlin message. The official Mosco v news agency says the Soviet presented s'i ultimatum to Estonia and Latvia alleging that Latvia had extended ita military alliance with

Estonia against tlie Soviet by drawing in Lithuania and attempting to draw iu Finland. Such an alliance was not onlv not permissible and unbearable, but, profoundly dangerous and menacing to tlie Soviet. The official news agency at Moscow denies the existence of a Russian plan for the formation of an anti-aggression pact in the Balkans under Soviet protection. Soviet Warships at Riga. The Berlin news agency states that Soviet warships entered Riga harbour, on the Latvian coast, and armoured forces have taken up their position in the city. Reports from Riga state that the Latvian Government resigned after the acceptance of the Soviet ultimatum. The first Soviet troops crossed the frontier this morning. From Kaunas it is reported that a "people's government" under M. Justas Paleckis Author, as Prime Minister, has been set up. The Cabinet members are described as not Communists, but | Left Wing patriots.