RUSSIA’S DEFENCE MEASURES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 15

RUSSIA’S DEFENCE MEASURES

Vast No-Man’s-Land Diplomatic quarters in Washington have learned that Soviet Russia is hastening construction of a vast artificial no-man’s-land along her western frontier as a first. line of defence against Germany, said the Washington correspondent, of the “Manchester •.Guardian” recently. The information is that Russia, seeing the collapse of her efforts for an international barricade eastward around Germany, in order to protect tlie Ukranian wheat and coal fields, has launched a six-point programme designed to slow down and finally halt an approaching army. This comprises : — Deforesting a licit ranging from a few miles to n hundred miles wide between tlie Soviet Union and her neighbours, Rumania, Poland, and Estonia. Depopulating this zone and in some cases placing there trusted Red Army men and women, ostensibly posing as peasants and workers, while guarding the frontiers and checking illegal entry. Destroying or mining bridges, roads, and railways running through this zone. Const fueling a “Maginot line" along its eastern boundary. Accelerating railway and highway bitilding behind this line to facilitate the transfer of supplies and troops. Developing behind this line big military concentration centres, together with well-fortified anil provisioned air liases. It is further reported that the Russians tire extending this buffer zone to include distant frontiers with Finland, Persia, and Afghanistan, that are also being drawn into the defence system. This defence strategy is actually twenty years old. II was begun at the end of Hie Great War, when German troops threatened lx?nlitgrnd, and the Russian capital was hastily transferred uOO miles inland to Moscow.