ODESSA WITHIN

Grey River Argus, 10 September 1941, Page 5

ODESSA WITHIN

A Strong Fortress [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.l (Rec. 1.15.) LONDON, Sept. 9. Life at Odessa is described by a Soviet war correspondent, M E. Vilenski, who says: “Some old people and children have been evacuated, but the majority remain. They are hurrying about their casks, and are carrying spades, pick.- and sandbags and strengthening gun positions. Arkady Khrenov, who was largely responsible for the destruction of Finland’s Mannerheim Line, has supervised the construction of several belts of fortifications with anti-tank obstacles and trenches.” M. Vilenski does not claim that Odessa can hold out indefinitely, but he declares: “It is an immensely strong fortress. Factories there ar? producing roughly-made armoured vehicles, which have inflicted heavy casualties on Roumanians. Workshops are repairing tanks salvaged from the front line, and are making hundreds of thousands of mines. At least a million cleverly-contrived obstacles protect the "landward approaches. Twelve thousand citizens and 70,000 members of the Young Communist League constitute the city’s front line of_defence. Women every 7 day carry bundles of food to their menfolk', then return to work in the city, or to bring more food from farms. Three daily' papers still are being published. Electricity is still functioning. The air raid damage has. so fat., been verv slight, because most German planes cannot be spared from the northerfi sector, and most German pilots are youngsters under twenty.”

ROUMANIAN CAPITAL BOMBED. LONDON, September 8. It is announced in Rome that the Russian Air Force on three occasions bombed Bucharest last night. “Hopelessly Insufficient” ALLIED AID FOR SOVIET. GOING THROUGH IRAN. (Received Mid-night) I LONDON. September H. There ar P British and American tanks and planes and other war material arriving, through Iran, for Russia’s southern front. These supplies, however, are described as being hopelessly insufficient for the battles which now are being fought, which are on a scale which the British people seem incapable of comprehending. This news is sent, from Stockholm, to the “Daily Telegraph” bv its correspondent. He adds the warning: “Unless sufficient aid .arrives quickly, Hitler may, through the Allied dilatoriness, pull off the riskiest gamble of his career.” - MOSCOW THEATRES. R.A.F. ATTEND BALLET. (Received Mid-night). LONDON, September 9. By contrast with what is now happening round Leningrad, a ballet season was opened last night in Moscow to an audience in which British and Allied uniforms predominated, while “a whole array of Royal Air Fora? tunics could be seen.” VIBORG BOMBS. LONDON, September 8. Commenting on the report that the Russians used radio transmitters to explode bombs at Wiipuri, the secretary of the Television Society (Mr. J. J’.’Denton) said that British scientists were fully aware of the possibilities of such a device. The Russians in some respects were ahead ot us in radio research. Easily portable apparatus would be all that was required to explode bombs 100 miles away. One obvious advantage raaioexplcded bombs have over mines, fired by the old method, was that there would be no wires to give away their position. REPORTED GERMAN DISPUTE. LONDON, September 8.

Travellers arriving at Ankara from Berlin report a dispute between the Nazi Party and the German Army. They state that the dispute followed a declaration by the Nazi Party officials, that Soviet political Commissars captured on the Eastern Front should be “liquidated.” Listz and Goering are reported to have disagreed, whereupon Hitler rushed propaganda speakers to the front, to back up the order that the Commissars should be executed.

The Volga Germans SOVIET’S ORDER. FOR THEIR REMOVAL TO SIBERIA. LONDON, September 8. The Soviet decree ordering that 1 the German population of the German Volga Republic, estimated at three hundred and sixty thousand people, shall as speedily as possible be removed from Russia and resettled in Siberia, was signed at the Kremlin, Moscow, by M. Kalinin. The decree states: “According to reliable information received by the military authorities, there are thousands, even tens of thousands of cliversionists and spies among the German population in the Volga region. who are prepared to cause explosions a.t a signal from Germany. No German living there has reported their presence. Therefore, the German population are covering up enemies of the Soviet people. The Soviet Government would be forced to adopt measures of reprisal n diversionist acts are committed, and bloodshed occurred, and therefore finds it necessary to resettle the entire population of the Volga region in other regions. Those resettled will be given land in the Novosi; blrsk and Omsk districts, -also Altai region and Kaazkhstan republic, where land is rich and fertile. They will also receive state aid for establishing themselves in the new regions.” N.Z. College Students MESSAGE TO LENINGRAD STUDENTS. PA WELLINGTON, Sept. 9. Victoria University College Students’ Association sent the. following cable to Leningrad University: “Wellington students salute heroic Leningrad where we know university students to be in the forefront as alwavs in defence of civilisation against Fascist barbarism.” The reply has been received:— Students and teachers at Leningrad University express their deepest gratitude for sentiments of fraternal solidarity. We are helping with all forces our beloved Red Armv. Quite confident m the triumph of our right cause, and in a near victory of all progressive forces of humanity over bloodstained Fascism.”