SHROUDED IN MYSTERY

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 21, 19 October 1944, Page 5

SHROUDED IN MYSTERY

Russia Big War News (LONDON, October 17. “Writing the news from Moscow today is like covering the eruption of a volcano from the edge of the crater—a lot is going on around you, but you do not know exactly what and when till it explodes,” says the Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press. “There is no military dispatch in ‘Red Star’ or ‘lzvestia’ giving anything newer than the official communiques. “The available military news can be summed up as follows: From October 10 to October 16 inclusive 800 German tanks were destroyed or damaged, indicating that one of the greatest tank battles of ,the war is going on on the Hungarian plains. “The Russians south-west of Riga are occupying every acre, while two huge pincers are closing in against Ruthenia, the western bulge of Czechoslovakia, with the Germans retreating as fast as they can to the safety of the Bohemian plateau. “On the political side, in spite of the fact that Moscow harbours important visitors such as Messrs. Churchill and Eden, and M. Mikolajczyk, there is nothing in the Press or on the radio about them. All the political groups are maintaining a rigid silence. “In the history of international events there has never been a time which brought forth so much guess-work by international observers and foreign correspondents here.”