FIGHT TO FINISH EXPECTED

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 20, 18 October 1941, Page 9

FIGHT TO FINISH EXPECTED

Defence Of Moscow DIPLOMATIC STAFFS LEAVE

(Received October 17, 8.45 p.m.) LONDON, October 16.

The “Daily Mail’s” Stockholm correspondent says the entire diplomatic corps in Moscow and also the Russian Foreign Office staff have left the capital, it is believed for Kazan. The diplomatic corps left on the advice of the Russian Foreign Office, indicating that the battle for Moscow will be fought to the finish and that the city will not be declared an “open town.” The mayor of Moscow told an American journalist who has just arrived in London that great stocks of food and fuel were stored in the Soviet capital, where, even without one additional carload of food or fuel, the population could be sustained till the journalist added: “I saw some of these stores in warehouses and converted buildings in which there are mountains of potatoes, large bins of wheat and barley, and acres of coal and wood. The city will be able to stand a siege for at least six months, even if cut off from fresh supplies. Moscow is well defended aud the whole population seemed to be working on the defences. Almost every tall building has anti-aircraft guns on the roof. Moscow is ready to put up the greatest defence of modern times.” Preparing For Great Test.

How Moscow is preparing for its great test is.described in a broadcast from the capital by a well-known author. “I have visited all districts in Moscow today, and everywhere, in the streets, in the square, and m the factories, I saw grim indominitable determination,” he said. The populace was ready and well-armed to help the Russian soldiers to fight the enemy till its Anal destruction. As the thrusts to Moscow grow nearer to the capital, the Moscow radio has broadcast a stirring message to the defenders of the city. Even now, when the enemy had created a serious threat to Moscow, he was no nearer victory, the radio stated. Victory would never be his. Arms supplied by Russia’s allies, it was stated, had beguft to arrive, and the supplies would, increase from month to month. The broadcast urged workers to make more and more arms, and gave details of the vast industrial resources of Russia still far away from the invader. Deep in the rear, said the broadcaster, powerful industrial centres had been created. Those centres in the Urals, Siberia, the Caucasus, in the Volga region, and in central Asia, could and must provide all that was needed for the fight.