ON THE POLISH FRONT

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 1, 26 September 1939, Page 7

ON THE POLISH FRONT

Advance Of Invaders

HEROIC RESISTANCE CONTINUED

Peninsula Heavily Shelled

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received September 25, 9.20 p.m.)

LONDON, September 25.

A communique issued in Moscow records a general advance of the Soviet forces in Poland and the capture of 11,000 prisoners and several towns, bringing the troops to within 40 miles of the demarcation line. “The Times’ ” Rotterdam correspondent states that a German High Command communique announced that the Germans have crossed the Vistula between Modlin and Warsaw, cutting off Modlin from the capital.

Berlin radio admits that a German infantry detachment was forced to retreat with its wounded commander when reconnoitring in a Warsaw suburb. A communique yesterday revealed the continuance of Polish resistance round Tomtrszow and Zo-mosc, and between Lublin and; Lemberg. A message from Brussels says that the Gestapo is taking the cruellest reprisals against Jews in Poland. According to the Bucharest correspondent of the “Independence Beige,” thousands of Jews have 'been arrested and hundreds executed in Lodz alone. The Germans are specially irritated by the heroism of the Jews, to which. Marshal Smigly-Rydz paid a tribute. Fighting to Death.

It was reported yesterday that the Poles are lighting to the death on Hela Peninsula, which is still under heavy bombardment from land and sc®. A German communique says: “Our navy has joined in a renewed bombardment of Hela.” . General Bortnowski, commander or the Polish Corridor army, surrendered with his staff in the woods on the East Prussian 'border, stated a Berlin communique today. A German wireless broadcast in Polish, French and Russian stated: “Foreign diplomats after their return from Warsaw reported that -armed individuals detained 60 members of the Soviet Embassy, including 22 women and 23 children. The German Com-mander-in-Chief offers the Warsaw Commandcr-in-Chief an opportunity, of giving these and any other foreign diplomats in Warsaw till noon today for an unhampered passage through the German lines.” RUSSIAN METHODS Occupation Of Territory LONDON, September 24. ’The correspondent of “The Times” rnn the Lithuanian frontier says that hero and there the Poles desperately resisted the Russians, particularly at Grodno, where there was much street fighting. The Russian method of occupying unresisting towns and hamlets consists ol sending in motor-cycles or a motor-car with a few soldiers, who paste up bills giving the people 24 hours’ notice to quit. Many inhabitants steal away and hide, but their ultimate escape is unlikely. Occupation begins the next day witli varying degrees of ceremony. Local Soviets have been formed and the new order is functioning almost completely in Vilna, Baranowicze, and other western While Russian towns. The correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain at Munkacs in Ruthenia says that a large-scale transportation of Polisli military and civilan refugees to Lower Hungary lias begun. Russian and Hungarian troops have formally made contact in the Carpathians. Eight thousand Polish soldiers crossing the frontier before the Russians appeared had fought a rearguard action’ in which bands of- Ukrainian terrorists were killed. Many others despairingly committed suicide. A Polish priest disclosed that the terrorists lined up 40 Catholic theological students at. Lemberg and shot them “in a mad lust to strike at anything Godly." Polish officers said the Russians told them I hey did not want to light Um Poles. He added that the Russians were rounding up Ukrainian terroristsand distributing food.

By special arrangement Reuter's world nervier. in addition to other special sources of information, is used in the compilation of the overseas intelligence published In this Issue, and all rights therein in Australia and New Zealand are reserved.