NAZIS AND SOVIET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23941, 17 October 1939, Page 7

NAZIS AND SOVIET

EARLY CONVERSATIONS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR RUSSIANS TO VISIT BERLIN (By Radio.) DAVENTRY, Oct. 16. An American news agency states that Soviet-German conversations on the decision of Great Britain and France to continue the war are expected to begin on Monday. Russian Ministers, probably including M. Molotov, will visit Berlin for the discussions. BALTIC STATES THE RUSSIAN GARRISONS NAVAL AND AIR BASES WARSHIPS IN TALLINN BAY ROME, Oct. 16. (Received Oct. 16, at 11 p.m.) A radio broadcast announces that the Soviet forces to be stationed in the three Baltic States will total 70,000, of which- 20,000 will enter Estonia on Wednesday for the naval and air bases. Five thousand men will follow later. The garrison in Latvia will number 25,000, and in Lithuania 20,000., Eleven Russian warships have anchored in Tallinn Bay. THE NAZIS SELL OUT REASON FOR EVACUATION GOLD NEEDED IMMEDIATELY LONDON, Oct. 16. (Received Oct. 17, at 1.30 a.m.) Under the sub-headline "Nazis Sell Out in the Baltic," The Times gives prominence to its Riga special correspondent's quotation of the opinion in informed circles there that the withdrawal of Germans from abroad means that Hitler has sold to Stalin his European and colonial interests. "Hitler needed gold immediately, and Stalin wouldn't pay in advance without irrevocable relinquishment of the Nazi hold in the Baltic, so that Berlin precipitately ordered repatriation from the Baltic States. These ancient outposts of the' German Empire are paying with their bodies and freedom for Hitler's conquest of Poland and the war in the west. Their price in gold enables Hitler to purchase ores from Sweden and other war materials wherever procurable. " The first irrevocable step having been taken, Germany now sees the distress it has caused and is now trying to alleviate it by slackening the pace. Since the Bishop of Poelchau, head of the German Lutheran Church in Latvia, likened Hitler's voice to the voice of God in spiritual distress, the more mature section of those who have been deported have become reconciled to a sort of unresisting sacrificial resignation. Indeed, some murmured, 'We were sold like slaves for Red gold and forcibly transported to live on stolen Polish farms.'" BASELESS NAZI CHARGE USE OF GAS MINES (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Oct. 15. Following further reports broadcast by the German wireless that Polish troops employed Yellow Cross gas mines obtained from Britain, the War Office states: "In spite of the categorical denial issued by the British Government that it had not supplied gas in any form at any time to Poland, the German radio stations continue impudently to broadcast this baseless charge." The War Office recalls that the first German gas attack in the last war was preceded by similar allegations, when on April 17, 1915, the German Wolff News Agency stated: "Yesterday east of Ypres the British employed shells and borribs filled with asphyxiating gas." The first German gas attack was launched on April 22, 1915. No gas for war purposes was manufactured by Britain until May, 1915. TRIBUTE TO ALLIED WORKERS FIGHTING DICTATORSHIP COPENHAGEN, Oct. 15. The Workers' Union "Hipa" circularised members paying a tribute to British and French workers, who are " staking all against dictatorship. They are fighting for you and me and the future freedom of workers."