SLOVAKIAN DISPUTE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 99, 27 March 1939, Page 7

SLOVAKIAN DISPUTE.

HOSTILITIES CEASE. BUT REPORTS CONFLICT. BRATISLAVA, March 26. It is officially stated that the Slovakian and Hungarian hostilities have ceased by mutual agreement, but that the Hungarians are still fortifying frontier villages. COMPLAINT TO HITLER. TOWN BESIEGED LONDON, March 26. Despite earlier reports of Hungarians evacuating the invaded Slovakian territory, the Defence Ministry, in a statement issued yesterday in Bratislava, states that heavy lighting continues between Hungarians and Slovaks, in which aeroplanes on both sides participate.

The Premier of Slovakia, Dr. Tiso. has sent the Foreign Minister (M. Karmasin) to inform Herr Hitler that Hungarian bombers arc killing Slovaks of German descent, and to state that Hungary is violating Slovakia's territorial integrity which was guaranteed by the .Reich.

.Reinforcements and munitions arc being rushed eastward, also to the Polish frontier, where Poland is reported to have concentrated troops. Deports from Bratislava state that the town of Michalovace withstood a Hungarian siege all day. Pour Hungarian and two Slovak planes arc reported to have been shot down in an air battle in which 17 planes participated. Six soldiers, six civilians, and one member of the Hlinka Guard were killed at Zips, where Hungarian planes dropped five bombs. The dead include two women and three children.

Budapest messages state that lighting continues in Slovakia, and claim that seven Slovak planes were brought down. Slovak planes are stated to have bombed three Hungarian border towns, resulting in a Hungarian declaration that they would he “compelled to employ a greater preponderance of strength,’’ failing a satisfactory adjustment of the dispute. Prague reports that an Hungarian Slovak Commission will meet on Monday to deal with the situation and examine the cause of the conflict.