RUSSIA REBUFFS LEAGUE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 69, 14 December 1939, Page 9

RUSSIA REBUFFS LEAGUE

Launches Great Offensive Along

Finnish Front

ADVANCE STEMMED AFTER GRIM TOLL BY DEFENDERS

(By Telegraph—Press Association Copyright.) Received December 13. 9.10 p.m. LONDON December 13. Simultaneously with rejection by the Soviet Union of the P ro P osal of Nations to mediate in the Russian-Finnish dispute and a forecast by diplomatic circles r°n Mo cow of“n early withdrawn! from the League there have £en .more. emphat.c reports of a mighty Russian offensive, ecl.ps.ng all figbtmg thus far in h inland. Huge reserves are believed to be stationed at several points from Lan >"B ,a g n 0“ ' ward ready to launch concerted thrusts. Russia is reported to have I.SUU.UW men and 1’ 000 planes along the frontier and to have been moving up men and materials an endless stream for a whole week.

Hard fighting continued throughout yesterday, ihe Ft were holding the reinforced Russian armies. They s oppe advance on the Karelian Isthmus and halted the powerful offensive on the eastern front. . , The Finns were preparing for a counter-stioke and pouring reinforcements into the Petsamo front. Last night’s Finnish army communique stated: There w incessant attacks on the Karelian We repulsed the Russians, causing heavy casualties. Hundreds of dead are lying before our positions. Numerous tanks were destroye . “The Russians were also crushingly defeated on the eastern front and three battalions were annihilated. Twenty-seven machine-guns and twenty-five quickfiring guns were captured. Finnish airmen, operating in bitter weather, bombed the north Russian strategic railway from Murmansk and tore up the track for 12 miles with the object partly of diverting the Russian attack. ' The terrible cold and frosts are causing hundreds of casualties among the Russians, and prisoners are telling, ghastly tales of sentries being frozen to death at their posts. The Finns are reported to have suffered a serious setback by being forced to fall back from Salla. Two other columns f Hither south have not progressed as had been expected, but the Finns appear to be continuing their harassing tactics around Petsamo. . „ , ... It was reported earlier in a message from Copenhagen that Finnish guerrilla tactics were continuing successfully. One machine-gunner, up a tree, mowed down 77 Russians in Petsamo. Finnish patrols wiped out landing parties as fast as they came ashore from warships near Liinhamari. A Red Army communique early yesterday claimed that the advance had been continued on all fronts in Finland. There had been no aviation activity because of the low ceiling.