DEATHS IN RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1939, Page 5

DEATHS IN RUSSIA

HIGH AIR FORCE OFFICERS KILLED IN CRASH OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT RECENT PURGE STORY DISCREDITED. (Independent Cable Service.) (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) MOSCOW, July 30. General Kholzunov and three other high Air Force officers were killed in a crash. An official communique states that General Kholzunov and his brother officers were killed while fulfilling duties. Many army officers, including Voroshilov and his aides, signed a statement paying a tribute to the dead men. Observers express the opinion this belies the stories of a new purge, recently published in the foreign press, as the statement contains the names of men alleged to have been removed from command. WAR CASUALTIES? FIGHTING ON MONGOLIAN BORDER. WARNING ISSUED TO JAPAN. (Independent Cable Service.) (Received This Day, 9.30 a.m.) MOSCOW, July 30. General Kholzunov and other Air Force officers, including Major Cherkassov, who was a bombing expert, are believed to have died during fighting in Outer Mongolia. They will be given an elaborate military funeral, at which Marshal Voroshilov will be the chief mourner.

Reports that General Shtern, Commander of the First Far Eastern Arm?; had been removed are dispelled by his signature to the statement paying a tribute to the dead airmen.

Colonel Bogolubov, a member of the Soviet General Staff, writing in the “Izvestia," frankly admits that Soviet planes, tanks, artillery and troops are fighting Japanese forces on the Outer Mongol border. The article warns Japan that war against the Soviet can only end in defeat for the Fascist usurpers and asserts that the Soviet army is the most powerful in the world.