Polish Accusation Of Soviet

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20045, 18 September 1939, Page 8

Polish Accusation Of Soviet

ARMY CROSSING OF FRONTIER Mutual Pledge Of Non-Aggression DEVELOPMENT NO SURPRISE TO ALLIES (Elec. Tel. Copyright.—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Sept. IS, 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 17. The Polish Embassy to-day declared Russia’s invasion of Poland an act of aggression. A representative hurried to the British Foreign Office to discuss the new turn of events. Official quarters said they could not speculate on the implications of the Anglo-Polish non-aggression pact until precise facts were, determined. It was asserted, however, that the possibility of such action as Russia had taken had been taken into account by Britain and France from the moment the dermaii-Russian non-aggression pact was signed. The-Polish Embassy in London has issued the following statement: “At four a.in. on September 17, Soviet troops crossed the Polish frontier at many points. The Polish Army immediately and strongly resisted them, particularly at Molodeczno. Russia’s pretext to justify this flagrant and ' direct aggression is that the Polish Government had ceased to exist and had abandoned its territory, leaving its population in territories outside, the German wkr zone without protection. The Polish Government cannot discuss the pretext which Russia invented in order to justify the violation of the frontier. The Polish. Government is responsible lb the President and the national Parliament functioning in Polish territory and carrying on the war against Gorman aggressors with all the means in its power. Act of Direct Aggression. | “The Soviet, by this act of direct aggression, has flagrantly violated the Polish-Russian pact of non-aggression concluded | at Moscow on July 25, 1932, by which the parties mutually ’ undertook to abstain from all aggressive action or attack against each oilier. Moreover, the protocol signed at Moscow on May 5, 1934, prolonged 1 ho pact until December 31. 1945.

“Russia and Poland, by the convention concluded in London on July 3, 1933, clearly stamped as an act.of aggression any encroachment on a contracting party’s territory by the armed forces of the other; also that no political, military, or economic consideration could serve as a pretext for an act of aggression. Therefore the Soviet stands self-condemned as a violator of its own international obligations, contradicting all the moral principals on which it pretended to base its foreign policy since its admittance to the League of Nations.” The Polish Embassy in Paris denies the Russian allegation that the Polish Government is no longer in Poland. An announcer broadcasting this added that, the Russian move had caused a sensation in Lithuania where the Government leaders immediately conferred.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, and the Foreign Secretary, Viscount Halifax, conferred throughout the day. It is authoritatively stated that the British Government is ' waiting for fuller information from the Ambassador. According to the Associated Press, the British diplomatic view is that the attitude of the Polish Government is clear and it the Govermcnt flees'into Rumania it cannot operate. A Berlin message states that the official German quarters have strongly indicated that M. Stalin invaded Poland by agreement with Herr Hitler. German troops have already reached the Ukrainian sections which tlm Russians may claim.