RUSSIAN TROOPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 October 1940, Page 5

RUSSIAN TROOPS

MASSING ON FRONTIERS IN POLAND AND BALKANS. PROPAGANDA AGAINST NAZI THREAT. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, October 2. The Polish Telegraphic ,Agency reports that refugees arriving in Bucharest confirm that a mass concentration of Russian troops is being made along the Rivers Bug and San, which form the frontier between German and Russian Poland. A similar concentration has begun on the frontier of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, where strong Russian mechanised units lie camouflaged among the forests. Worochta, the famous Polish spa in the Carpathian mountains, is packed with tanks and motorised units. Moreover, numerous transports of motorised units are going to Rowne (or Rovno, south-eastern Poland), from where they are concentrating on the GermanRussian frontier in that area. Neutrals, arriving in Bucharest from Moscow, confirm that Russian propaganda against a German threat is being intensified. The Russian deliveries to Germany, they state, have diminished and the trade treaty is not being carried out fully.

NAZIS & MOSCOW RIBBENTROP’S REPORTED MISSION. THE ATTITUDE OF SPAIN. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 2. No information is available in London to confirm reports current in the Press that the German Foreign Minister, Herr von Ribbentrop, has gone to Moscow. As these reports appear to originate in Germany, it is suggested here that the story is possibly mere propaganda put abroad to encourage the belief that the Russians are on the point of joining the three-Power pact between Germany, Italy and Japan. The conclusion of the pact has not yet been officially intimated by the British Ambassador in Tokio. Commenting on the visit to Rome of the Spanish Minister of the Interior. Senor Suner, the “Daily Telegraph” points out the inherent Axis difficulty in persuading Spain to adopt the course which Italy herself has pursued unprofitably since June 10. Speaking of the Italian parleys with Senor Suner, it says: “The facts of the situation suggest that these efforts to draw Spain into the war have not been successful.

“What Hitler failed to obtain from Senor Sutler’s long visit to Berlin it ■is not likely that his subaltern will be able to extract. Immediately after Italy’s entry Spain declared herself a non-belligerent. That, of course, is the status which Italy held till the defeat of France tempted her to deliver a stab in the back with the hope of obtaining the spoils of victory without cost. The subsequent course of the war has shown' that Mussolini made gross miscalculations which General Franco can feel small desire to imitate.” The “Telegraph” adds that the shattering of the Luftwaffe’s attacks, the destruction of the German invasion flotillas, and the R.A.F.’s raids have given Spain a new estimate of British and Nazi power.