FINLAND’S LAST WORD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 257, 31 October 1939, Page 7

FINLAND’S LAST WORD

BEING SENT TO MOSCOW CROWD SHOWS APPRECIATION OF U.S. SUPPORT (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright] Received Oct. 30, 11.5 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 29. Finland's reply to the latest Russian demands was drafted on Saturday. It was expected to be submitted to the Finnish Government and the committee of Parliament that night and the Finnish delegates were to return with it to Moscow, leaving yesterday or to-day. It is stated to be Finland's last word. The Finish counter-proposals to Moscow are reported to include a reminder that the Russo-Finnish nonaggression pacts require disputes to be submitted to a mixed tribunal for arbitration. The civic authorities at Helsinki thanked the Briton, Mr. Hugh Sladen, and his wife, who is a grand-daughter of General Booth, for the splendid work of the Salvation Army during the crisis. * Contributions continue to pour in for the Finnish Red Cross, including gifts from the Crown Princes of Sweden and her sisters. Massed choirs led a crowd of 100,000 outside the American Legation, singing the Star Spangled Banner and Finnish Anthem. The United States Minister appeared on the balcony and acknowledged the speeches of gratitude for American support. The crowd sang similarly outside the Scandinavian legations. BLSES IN LATVIA SOVIET TROOPS TAKE OVER Received Oct. 30, 6.5 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 29. According to the Riga correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain, the first trainload, of Soviet troops has arrived at the frontier in order to take up the bases, granted under the Soviet-Latvian pact. AIR-RAID WARNINGS PLANES OVER SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND Received Oct. 30, 11.55 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 30. Two planes were seen passing over a town in north-east England at 9 a.m. Machine-gun firing was heard. An air-raid warning was sounded in a Kent tawn and the “all clear” was given ten minutes later. Air-raid warnings were sounded in three other towns in south-east England, shortly followed by the “all clear." Three thousand children were evacuated from schools in orderly fashion. The planes were hidden by low clouds. COURAGEOUS PILOT DAMAGED ENEMY PLANE Received Oct. 30, 6.35 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 29. Every part of the German machine shot down in Scotland yesterday bore traces of devastating British machinegun fire. The British fighter pilots speak admiringly* of the pilot who, though suffering numerous wounds, “pan-caked” his machine on a hillside and staggered out of the machine with the aid of the navigator, who was the only one not wounded. One of the crew said in English to a policeman: “We surrender as prisoners of war. Please see to my gunners.” But Loth gunners were dead. OVER SOUTH GERMANY BRITISH RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHT VULNERABILITY OF GREAT NAZI CITIES. LONDON, Oct. 29. The Air Ministry announced that reconnaissance flights for the first time penetrated the south of Germany. All the machines returned safely. This announcement that the R.A.F. has carried out another of its numerous reconnaissance flights into the heart of German territory lends force to the comment of the Spectator, which says in reference to the flights last Tue& day over Hamburg, Magdeburg, and Berlin: “No bombs were dropped, but they obviously might have been, as the populations concerned will not fail to realise. So convincing a demonstration of the vulnerabiliy of the great German cities provides the best of reasons why Herr Adolf Hitler should withhold an order to bomb civilians of Britain and France. FIVE GERMAN RAIDERS IN ATLANTIC i FORMER SUPPLY SHIPS FOR AIR SERVICE FARIS, Oct. 29. Five German raiders are apparently operating in the North and South Atlantic. the pocket battleships Deutschland and Admiral von Scheer, and the Westphalen, the Friesenland. and the Ostmark, the last three being formerly supply ships for the German South Atlantic aeroplane service, states the military correspondent of L’lntransigeant. The Schwabenland, another in this group, is reported to have sunk the Clement before British cruisers sent her to the bottom.