EVACUATION OF HELSINKI

Southland Times, Issue 23990, 4 December 1939, Page 7

EVACUATION OF HELSINKI

PEOPLE STAYING IN DUG-OUTS GOVERNMENT APPEALS TO LEAGUE SEARCH. FOR VICTIMS OF AIR RAIDS (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received December 3, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, December 3. The Finnish capital entered the third day of'the war with only a third of the population remaining. The majority of these are spending their days and nights in dug-outs and the snowcovered woods and forests round the city. Many are sleeping on the open roadsides, which are littered with abandoned cars, wrecked in accidents during black-outs.' The Finnish constitutional government from a bomb-proof Cabinet room appealed to the League of Nations to intervene in the Russian-Finnish dispute on the basis of Articles 11 and 15 of the Covenant. The Soviet and the Finnish Puppet Government have signed a pact of mutual assistance and friendship as the result of negotiations between the Soviet Prime Minister (M. Viacheslav Molotov), the dictator (M. Joseph Stalin), the Commissar for War (Marshal Klementi Voroshilov) and M. Zhdanov, on the one hand, and M. Kussinen, the “Prime Minister" of the puppet government, on the other. The pact immediately becomes effective and leclares that the parties are convinced ■hat hostilities are being carried on for he benefit of imperialists, for which eason the pact is concluded. To ensure the territorial integrity of Russia and Finland it is provided that the Russian Government will lease Hanko, with the adjoining territory, for naval and military bases. Russia cedes to Finland 23,330 square miles of Karelia, besides moving back the frontier west of Leningrad, thus ceding 1300 square miles to the Soviet, for which £600,000 will be paid in the form of compensation. The Soviet also buys for £1,500,000 eight islands in the gulf of Finland and the northern Finnish peninsulas. The signatories will assist each other in the event of a third Power’s aggression and will not conclude any treaty with a third Power directed against either signatory. i. ECONOMIC CONVENTION An economic convention will be concluded providing for an annual turnover of £4,000,000. The Soviet will sell Finland cheap arms. The treaty will be valid for a quarter of a century and may be renewed for a similar period, if it is not denounced at a year’s notice. In a telephone interview with the United Press in New York, the Finnish Prime Minister (M. Ryosto Ryti) said: “We will fight alone. We expect to win. We are obtaining the moral support of Britain and France and hope for diplomatic support. Finland fears that they cannot help militarily, because of our isolation. We are still hopeful of a negotiated settlement. Tell the Americans that we will not surrender. The Finns will fight to the last.” Firemen and ambulance officials have been searching since dawn for victims. They have found 13 bodies where a direct hit demolished two apartment houses. They also discovered the body of Professor Sikonen, the famous electro technical expert, amid the ruins of the High School. Bombs went right through the highest buildings. One hundred thousand citizens departed last night. There was

no sign of panic. A priest held a radio service and. exhorted all to do their duty to the country. Meanwhile the Hanko fortress undauntedly answers the fire from Soviet warships. Two hundred English and American residents of Helsinki have sought refuge at Grankulla.

A German. steamer on route to Helsinki, was ordered to remove German and Russian residents, but all Russians were already interned. Russian troops captured a monastery at Petchenga, 10 miles south of Petsamo.