POLISH CIVILIANS

Grey River Argus, 5 September 1939, Page 7

POLISH CIVILIANS

Bombed, Gassed and Shot towns in flames. [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.l (Received September 5, 12.8 a.m.) LONDON, September 4. German air raids on the Polish civilian population killed fifteen hundred men, women and children on Saturday alone, said the Polish Ambassador, M Raczynski, in the course of a press interview at the Embassy. He added that there scarcely was one township that had not suffered from aerial at- ' The German aeroplanes, he said, for the first time, used gas at Wolbrom, a small town in western Poland. The British United Press Warsaw correspondent says that the Polish Foreign Office announces that German war ’planes are dropping yperite gas on civilians, and are brutally bombing and machine-gunning crowds of fleeing and terrified women and children. Official Polish bulletins state that several towns are aflame. The Warsaw radio has warned the public that German ’planes have been dropping poisonous chemicals at Wilno. It is officially stated that two hundred were killed in the course of the bombing of Bydgoszex on Friday and Saturday.

MILITARY OBJECTIVES. SOUGHT BY GERMAN RAIDERS. (Received September 5, 1.10 a.m.) LONDON, September 4. “The Times” Warsaw correspondent says: The German air bombardments, though accompanied by the violation of open towns, seems to have been confined to military objectives. There has been a bombardment of a pleasure resort, Otwock, eighteen miles from Warsaw. It was determined by the existence of military establishments, but it resulted in the massacre of a number of consumptives. In some cases the Germans have parachuted a number of troops behind the lines in order to cut telephone wires and blow up bridges. USE OF GAS ALLEGED. NEW YORK, September 3. The United Press of America’s Warsaw correspondent states that the Foreign Office charged German ’planes with dropping hyperite gas on civilian populations, and bombing and machine-gunning women and children fleeing from attacked cities. (Received September 5, 12.55 a.m.) NEW YORK, September 4. The American Associated Press correspondent at Warsaw says that Ambassador Biddle advised Washington that he believes the bombing of his villa was deliberate.

SHIP WITH WOUNDED. ARRIVING IN SWEDEN. (Received September 4, 12.46 p.m.) NEW YORK, September 4. The American Associated Press Copenhagen correspondent states that ; Harbour Officials at Malmo in Sweden ’ were advised by radio that an uni-, dentified ship was arriving at Malmo at 1 p.m. with 40 wounded. | Ambulances have been ordered co the waterfront. THE CORRIDOR. LONDON, September 3. The Polish Embassy in London denied reports that the Germans had cut the Corridor. Mines Laid IN NORTH SEA AND BALTIC. (Received, September 4, 11.35 p.m.) LONDON, September 4. The 8.8. C. broadcast a navigational warning to British fishing vessels’off the east coast of England, south of latitude 57 north, to return to their harbours. The wanning follower a German radio broadcast in English, picked up here announcing that a vast area in the North Sea had been mined. Mines, it stated, had been laid in the vicinity 'of Dogger Bank and shipping was warned not to us this area. (Received September 4, 11.50 p.m.) The radio ships of the location of German mines between the southern tip of Sweden and the Island of Moen between Langerland and Aaland. The Danish Government is reported to be preparing a minefield to protect Copenhagen.

GREEK SHIP. MINED IN BALTIC. (Received September 5 1.37 a.m.) NEW YORK, September 4. It is believed that the wounded on the ship arriving at Malmo comprise the crew of an unidentified Greek ship which struck a mine in the Baltic Sea.