THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 24, 1940
Violent Red Offensive In Strategic Sector
DESPERATE BID TO BREAK
WINTER
HITS GEORGIA
New York, To-day.
The severe winter conditions prevalling in Europe have dea cended in full force upon the United States.
Arctic gales have' swept south as far as southern Georgia, where the heaviest snowfall for a cen. tury occurred yesterday.
The thermometer registered ten da. grees below zero-Reuter,
U-BOAT SINKINGS OF NEUTRALS
London, To-day. More neutral ships have been sunk by U-boats.
On January 21 one Greek
THROUGH: SEVERE LOSSES FAIL TO STAY ATTACK
Helsinki, To-day.
THE RUSSIANS ARE STILL pushing hard their new onslaught on a 50-mile front stretching from north-east of Lake Ladoga to the frontier, and this sector threatens to become of vital import-
ance.
If the Russians succeed in breaking through, which seems unlikely at present, they would be able to sweep round Lake Ladoga and take the Manner- heim Line in rear.
Last night's communique, however, said the Finns
are beating back the assault with heavy losses.
The Russians are attacking in mass, strongly supported by artillery and
tanks, and the 1,000 casualties men-. tioned In the communique provide some Indication of the size of the ef-
RATIONING
ORDERS IN RUMANIA
(SPECIAL TO "CHINA MAIL")
Bucharest, To-day.
For the first time since the out- break of the war, Rumania has enforced the rationing system of certain Important foodstuffs.
It is expected that all vitally Important foodstuffs will bo brought, under Government con- trol shortly-Havas.
NEUTRAL SOYA BEAN
steamer and one Danish ship fort the Russians are now making. IMPORTS QUESTIONED
were sunk without warning
by German submarines.
In neither case did the submarine make any attempt to save the lives of the crews.
The communique states: "North- Gast of Lake Ladoga our troops continue fighting with success. All attacks launched by the enemy at different points were beaten back with heavy Rusalan losses. "During_the_fighting at Kollaanjoki over 1,000 enemy have been killed in the last few days.
BOMBERS ACTIVE
The Greek ship, Ekatontarcos Dracoulis, was torpedoed without warning by a German submarine in the Atlantic. Twelve men of the crew were picked up by the Italian ship, Nino Padre, but one, lifeboat, with several men in it, is still miss- "In the war zone enemy planes have ing, the submarine making no attempt | been most in evidence on the isthmus to save the crew.
north of Lake Ladoga. On the same day, the Danish chiefly "bombers- steamer, Tekla, was torpedoed with- out warning. Eight of the crew were rescued by the Norwegian steamer Iris, again the submarine making no effort to save the crew.
J
THREE OTHERS
There is not the slightest doubt that the Tekla was sunk by a tor- pedo from a U-boat. One of the sur- vivors stated that he clearly saw the track of the torpedo just before the explosion occurred. It is now known that three other neutral ships which were sunk some time ago were the
victims of German submarines.
The ships were the Finnish, Merca-
zelli, and the Swedish Svarton.
They are
"Our own aircraft have repell.
ed enemy Aircraft, carried out reconnaissance photographic flights and directed artillery fire. "According to confirmed reports six enemy planes were shot down and the fate of three others is uncertain.”- Reuter.
London, To-day.
MR. P. C. LOFTUS (Conservative, Lowestoft) drew atten- tion in the House of Commons yesterday to the in- crease in soya bean purchases by Holland and certain Scandinavian countries since the war began.
Mr. Loftus asked whether in view of the fact that Germany is in great need of soya beans, Mr. Ronald Cross (the Minister of Economic Warfare) would take steps to ra- tion supplies that reached contiguous neutral coun- tries.
Mr. Cross replied that owing to the fact that certain contiguous neutral countries had suppressed their trade statistics it was impossible to give a complete answer.
PADEREWSKI
PRESIDENT OF COUNCIL
Statistical evidence available, how- ever, showed that since the outbreak HEAVY SOVIET LOSSES
-of-war up-to-the end of November-no Helsinki, To-day. excessive importation had taken place. So far, all Soviet attacks in the new The general situation could be re- offensive on south of Lake Ladoga have been
the Mannerheim Linegarded as sufficiently satisfactory and there seemed to be no immediate need for rationing, though of course that pulsed with heavy loss of life and ma-
M. Paderewski, the world- possibility was not being overlooked. famous pianist and compos-
Reuter,
terial.
Fighting is still progressing in the tor, the Swedish, Lars Magnus Tro-Salla sector, and it is reported through neutral correspondents that the Rus- For as long as possible those out-sians have been forced to retreat from with- side Germany tried to believe
Maerkejaervi to which they that
drew some 30 miles in three days re- these ships had been lost through other causes, but irrefutable evidence cently. now proves them to have been dell- berately sunk by U-boats.
To-day, the whole world outside Germany is echoing with less restraint the language of the Dutch newspaper, "Het Vaderland" when it wrote of
There has been some renewed air activity in the Petsamo area. -Reuter.
400 BOMBS DROPPED
Helsinki, To-day.
No less than 400 bombs were rain-
ASSETS OF CZECHS
London, To-day.
The Financial Secretary to the Trea- sury, replying to a Commons debate on the Government's bill for dealing
with the balance of the advances made
Paris, To-day.
er, was elected President of the Polish National Council yesterday at its first meeting here.
The Council will be an advisory body to the Polish President until it is pos- sible for an elected Parliament to meet again in Warsaw.
Its first act was to pass a motion of sympathy with Finland.
M. Paderewski gave a message of comfort to the Polish people now suf- Poland, he said, was immortal and her
the sinking of Arendskerk: "After ed on Finland outside the actual war the torpedoing of the Sliedrecht, this zone on Monday, it is reported. Three to the Czechoslovak Government for fering from the German aggressors. is one of the most impertinent acts of bombs just missed a hospital in one relief, referred to blocked Czech as- German submarines.. It is not real warfare and cannot contribute to the fame of any navy.”—British Wireless,
ECONOMIC DICTATOR QUESTION
London, To-day.
In the House of Commons, yester- day, the Prime Minister- was asked if he would re-consider the setting- up of a central directing organization for the econom
Chamberlain gorilla subject was
case and civilians were gunned.--Reuter.
machine-sets in London which were not cover-final victory at the side of the Allies
SOVIET PERTURBED
Moscow, To-day, '
The Finnish rald on Kronstadt has
would bring liberty again to her op- pressed people.
ed by the Bill and which he sald amounted to about ten million pounds. Captain Crookshank stated that if
M. Paderewski is 79 years of age was the intention of the British Gov-and it is over 20 years since he was ernment to keep these assets block- first elected President. General St- ed until the end of the war. Bri-
korski is the present Premier.-Reuter, tish Wireless.
REDS BEGIN ON SILVER BULLETS
caused some alarm in Soviet Russia, skumgeler Spa T
not only because, according to reports that two Soviet battleships were bad- ly damaged, but because it has brought realisation that "the" naval base is completely
afr rotected against
attack
DER
THE ING
HELSINKI, TO-DAY.
RE
LONG CONFERENCE
{SPECIAL TO""CHINA:MAIL").
Paris, To-day. President Raczkievicz of Poland had a lengthy_conference yesterday, with Ignace ^- Paderewski, world famous pianist and former Polish statesman- Havas
NOTHING TO REPORT
niqué