GERMAN DENIAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1941, Page 5

GERMAN DENIAL

NO ATTACK BEGUN ON RUSSIA REPORTED PREPARATIONS BY SOVIET. BALLOON BARRAGES SET UP. LONDON. June 19. An official statement issued in Berlin states that it is not true that German troops have already begun to invade Russia. The authorities had no knowledge that clashes had occurred on the Russian-German frontier. Dr. Goebbels has denied emphatically that any clash has taken place between German and Russian troops. Russian broadcasts have made no mention of tension on ' the frontier. Large scale military exercises are taking place in the western districts of the Soviet Union and it is stated that Balloon barrages have now been set up there.

REPORTS PERSIST WITHOUT CONFIRMATION. TERMS OF AN ALLEGED ULTIMATUM. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.25 a.m.) LONDON. June 19. Despite denials, reports persist of a German-Rumanian ultimatum to Russia. One completely unconfirmed report from Ankara even asserts that Germany is already attacking Russia at fifteen points on the eastern frontier. The ultimatum, according Axis circles in Ankara demands, firstly, that Russia join the Axis: secondly, Bessarabia's return to Rumania and, thirdly, Germany to share for 40 years in expoitation of Caucasian oil and Ukranian agriculture.

ATTACK ON RUSSIA SAID TO HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED. NO CONFIRMATION IN LONDON. LONDON. June 19. It is reported from New York that the Columbia Broadcasting system states that it heard Turkish radio statements that Germany had actually launched an attack on Rusia, but no confirmation of these reports is available in London.