GERMANS CLAIM PROGRESS

Southland Times, Issue 23932, 26 September 1939, Page 7

GERMANS CLAIM PROGRESS

MODLIN CUT OFF FROM / WARSAW EMBASSY STAFF DETAINED BY FORCE (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received September 25, 10.10 p.m.) LONDON, September 25. The German High Command, in a statement, announced that the Germans crossed the Vistula between Modlin and Warsaw, cutting off Modlin from the capital. The Commander of the Polish Corridor Ar/ny (General Bortnowski) surrendered with his staff in woods on the east Prussian border. A German wireless broadcast in Polish, French and Russian stated that foreign diplomats, after their return from Warsaw, reported that armed individuals had detained 60 members of the Soviet Embassy, including 22 women and 23 children in cellars in the badly-damaged Soviet Embassy. The German Commander-in-Chief (General Walther von Brauchitsch) offered the Warsaw Commander-in-Chief (General Czumme) the opportunity of giving these, and any other foreign diplomats in Warsaw at noon on September 25, an unhampered passage through the German lines. The German radio admits that a German infantry detachment was forced to retreat with its wounded commander when reconnoitring in a Warsaw suburb. The communique reveals the continuance of Polish resistance round Tomaszow and Zomosc and between Lublin and Lwow.

German artillery is continually shelling Warsaw and Modlin in a bombardment which is kept up without interval, said a Daventry broadcast. In the capital not one .house is undamaged. In the last 24 hours 100 great fires have broken out and several thousand people have been killed. In addition to the artillery bombardment, there have been two air raids.

The defence of the city still continues and three Polish surprise attacks were made west of 'the Vistula,

A general advance by the Red Army in Poland is recorded in a statement issued in Moscow which says that 11,600 prisoners and several towns were captured, bringing the Soviet troops within 40 miles of the demarcation line. f The Bucharest correspondent of The Daily Telegraph says that the Polish Ambassador received an unsatisfactory answer when he inquired the Government’s intentions about the refugee Polish Government. The Poles 'have abandoned hope of re-establishing the Government in France. Germany is constantly pressing Rumania and is repeatedly complaining that Polish officers in uniform are appearing in public. The British Ambassador to Poland (Sir Howard Kennard) is postponing his departure ’’ ” decision about the Polish Government.