GRIP CLOSING

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24749, 24 November 1943, Page 3

GRIP CLOSING

GOMEL GARRISON STEADY ENCIRCLING MOVES THREAT FROM NORTH GROWS (Heed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 23 General Rokossovsky's troops in White Russia are going steadily ahead with their encircling drives around Gomel. The German position is like a narrow sack with Gomel at the botom and the Russians slowly squeezing the neck of the sack. The most immediate danger to the beleaguered enemy garrison comes from the north, where the Russians are extending the bridgeheads they have established on the west bank of the River Soj. The Russians in this area have driven the Germans out of eight more strong defence points and pushed forward to within about 12 miles of the last German escape route, the highroad and railway to the north-west. Other Russian troops, well to the rear of Gomel, have continued their westward drive beyond Rietchitsa. They are clearing the Germans out of the strip of country between the Beresina River and the* east-to-west railway that runs through Rietchitsa. A Soviet communique says: "The Red Arinv in the lower reaches of the Pripet River has captured 12 inhabited places and the Pripet railway station, and west of Rietchitsa has captured 16 inhabited places. The Russians north of Gomel have captured a number of centres of enemy resistance." ALLIED APPOINTMENTS COUNCIL FOR ITALY FRENCH NATIONAL COMMITTEE LONDON, Nov. 22 Air. Harold Macmillan has been appointed British representative on the Allied Advisory Council for Italy with the title of United Kingdom High Commissioner. Mr. Macmillan will retain his post as British Resident Minister at Allied Forces Headquarters. Mr. Harold Caccia, a member of Mr. Maemillan's staff, has been appointed acting-vice-president of the political section of the Central Commission for Italy. It is announced from the Prime .Minister's Office that Mr. A. Duff Cooper has been appointed representative of His Majesty's Government to tlie French Committee of National Liberation. Mr. Cooper will hold the personal rank of Ambassador during his appointment. The State Department in Washington has announced the appointment of Mr. Robert D. Murphy, at present chief United States representative in Algiers, as United States member of the Allied Advisory Council for Italy.

Mr. Edwin C. Wilson has been appointed United States representative to the French National Committee. He will succeed Mr. t Murphy, who continues to act as advisor on Italian affairs on the staff of the Allied Com-mander-in-Chief, General Eisenhower. Mr. Murphy and Mr. Wilson will both have Ambassadorial rank.

A cablegram from London on November 13 stated: The Algiers correspondent of the Associated Press Bays it is learned that Mr. Duff Cooper, who has just resigned from his position as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has been appointed British diplomatic representative to the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers.

RUSSIANS AND CZECHS ALLIANCE FOR 20 YEARS (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) MOSCOW. Nov. 22 The President of Czechoslovakia, Dr. Benes, has arrived in Moscow from London to sign an alliance with Russia directed against Germany and her satellites. The pact will have force for 20 years. DESTRUCTION IN SERBIA (Heed. 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 23 A Yugoslavia communique says that in Serbia Partisan troops have demolished two railway stations. A number 'of attacks by German and Rumanian troops were beaten off.