NAVAL ENGAGEMENT IN THE BALTIC

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2262, 23 September 1914, Page 5

NAVAL ENGAGEMENT IN THE BALTIC

DAMAGED RUSSIAN SHIPS AT HELSINGFORS -The Prime Minister has received the following cable message from the New Zealand High Commissioner in London: — "Stockholm, reports that a number of Russian, warships have arrived at Helsinrfors in a damaged condition. "Terriflo cannonades were heard in the neighbourhood of Aland Islands a day or two previously. It is believed that Russian cruisers engaged. with the German fleet near. Bornhokn." Helsingsfors is in Finland on the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Aland Islands are at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, Bornholm is an island in the centre of the Baltio at the south of Sweden, and is 400 miles distant from the Aland Islands. Petrograd, September 21. The newspapers predict that the main German fleet will enter the Baltio and operate against Russia at Kronstadt. The "Prawitelstweuny Wjestnik" says: "We are on the eve of big events. We shall see the German Fleet hastening from one sea to another, under the blow of the English Fleet and the resistance of our own."—("Times and Sydney "Sun".Services.) Petrograd, September 21. The Russian Fleet in the Baltic, aided by mines, is considered competent to frustrate any attempt against the Finnish ports or Reval. Reval is a fortified naval base oti the south side of the Gulf of Finland. Kronstadt is a powerful island fortress guarding the approach to Petrograd.