RUSSIANS DRIVEN BACK

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21531, 19 December 1939, Page 7

RUSSIANS DRIVEN BACK

Attempt To Storm Line Conflicting Reports Of Fighting United Press Association—By Electric T eiegra ph —Copyright LONDON, December 17. The Russians again attempted to storm Finland’s Mannerheim Line, but were driven back. There are conflicting reports of the fighting further north, but apparently no great changes have taken place. To-night’s Russian communique, for the first time since the outbreak of the w r ar does not claim any advance. The President of Finland (M. Kallio), in a broadcast, said he expressed deep gratitude for economic assistance, but believed that the civilised world would not leave Finland to fight alone. The Moscow radio later stated that the Russians advanced 85 miles from the frontier in the Kutno sector and also successfully attacked south of Petsamo. The hospitals at Leningrad are overflowing and schools are rapidly filling with casualties from the Finnish war. about which the public are receiving meagre details. The newspapers at the outset, when the operations were regarded as a glorious walk-over, were filled with ardent dispatches. They now publish merely three and four-line communiques, none of which claims the capture of a single important centre. The newspapers publish the bare fact of Russia’s expulsion from the League of Nations without comment. Reply Not Expected It is no longer expected that the Soviet Foreign Commissar (M. Molotov) will reply to the Finnish Foreign Minister (M. Tanner), but the "Pravda" expresses the official attitude. stating: "The Soviet Union will firmly continue its policy to liberate the Finnish people fr-m the chains of Imperialism, despite the comedies performed at Geneva and elsewhere.”