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that the renewal of these attacks is due to weather conditions, which have been ideal for the evasive tactics employed by the Germans whenever our fighters appear. The enemy may also have believed that a proportion of our fighter aircraft were grounded due to snow. Apart from these operations, there has been very little activity by the German Air Force.

Foreign Air Intelligence.

34. It is reported that a Trans-Siberian Air Service will shortly be inaugurated to link up the Berlin-Moscow and Japanese Air Transport systems.

RUSSO-FINNISH HOSTILITIES.

35. Ice is increasing and more or less covers the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, and the Gulf of Bothnia north of Kvarken. It has been established that one or two submarines are still operating in the Gulf of Bothnia, where one attacked a merchant ship in a Finnish convoy on the 13th January, without result. Owing to the lack of modern apparatus in their light craft, the Finns are finding some difficulty in providing escorts for convoys. They are reluctant to use their two armoured ships, which are well equipped, because the Russians are believed to possess sixty submarines in the Baltic Fleet.

36. No important developments have occurred during the week, though heavy fighting has been taking place in the sector immediately north of Lake Ladoga, and fighting has broken out again in the centre of the Eastern frontier in the neighbourhood of Kuhmoniemi.

North of Lake Ladoga, Soviet forces attacked down the railway towards Loimola in an attempt to relieve pressure on the 18th and 168th Soviet Divisions, which have been practically isolated at Kitela. These attacks have made very little progress. In the Kuhmoniemi area the situation is still obscure, but the Soviet troops are said to be attacking in considerable force. In the Salla sector a temporary deadlock appears to have been reached, the Soviet troops having been reinforced sufficiently to enable them to hold the Finns about fifteen miles west of Salla.

For the moment the situation still remains relatively favourable for the Finns, but there are signs that they are tiring and that their attacks lack their original sting. The Soviet troops, on the other hand, seem to have learnt something from their early disasters and to be conducting their operations on sounder lines.

37. A feature of the Soviet attacks on the Karelian Isthmus (which were renewed in force on the 20th January) was the extensive use of aircraft. Two hundred Soviet aircraft were used to machine-gun the western sector of the Finnish lines and 66 bombers and 33 fighters co-operated in the attack on the eastern sector. In spite of this air assistance the Russians failed to penetrate the Finnish defences.

On the 17th January a formation of eleven Russian bomber aircraft attacked the electric power station at Imatra. Owing to the vital importance of this station, which supplies practically the whole of Finland, the Finns have taken steps to defend it very strongly. No damage was done to the power station, but the entire Russian formation of eleven aircraft is reported to have been destroyed. It is believed that the majority of these aircraft were shot down by Fokkers operating from Immola.

38. Aircraft now operating in Finland frequently have to be parked in the open in temperatures ranging from 10° to 40° centigrade. It is reported that the two Italian Fiat fighter aircraft, which have undergone extensive trials in Finland, have proved unsuitable for operations in the present weather conditions, because of their high landing speed and of freezing troubles with the airscrew variable pitch mechanism.

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