CONTINUANCE OF MOSCOW TALK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20077, 25 October 1939, Page 7

CONTINUANCE OF MOSCOW TALK

FRESH INSTRUCTIONS SOUGHT

RETURN OF DELEGATE TO HELSINKI

SLOW RUSSIAN ENTRY INTO ESTONIA

DOUBTS OF MILITARY EFFICIENCY

(Elcc. Tel. Copyright-United Press Assn.)

(Reed. Oct, 25, 10.30 n.m.)

LONDON. Oct. 24

The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press states that! following the resumption of the Finnish-Soviet negotiations. Ihe Finnish delegation decided to send back a representative to Helsinki to-niglit for fresh instructions, apparently as a result of new Soviet demands.

The Helsinki correspondent of the Daily Mail says it is understood that Russia no longer is claiming the Aaland Islands, but merely asks Finland not to fortify them and to remove the present defences. Russia, according to a Moscow radio announcement also dropped the demand for a military alliance. She will he content if Finland pledges not to participate in any combination of Powers directed against the Soviet.

The official German nows agency in Berlin stated to-day that M. Stalin and the Soviet Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. M. Molotov, conducted a conference between Finland and the Soviet. At Helsinki the ‘Finnish Foreign Office spokesman 1 said that reports from Moscow showed the negotiations were proceeding normally and justified hopes of a settlement. Hitches In Schedules The New York Times’ correspondent, in a message from Tallinn, discussing the slowness of the Russian entry into Ksthonia, declares that there is a growing impression that the Russian military-efficiency is not great. Hitches in train and marching schedules and breakdowns of motorised units are puzzling. He adds that Russia momentarily is not interested in increasing her present gains and is likely to avoid a smash-up in' the Baltic throughout .the war, if only to save the prestige of her military and economic efficiency, but the Baltic States are living in fear. The correspondent states there is even a note of anxiety in the speeches of statesmen adjuring Russia to adhere to the basis of the agreements. Fear is caused by the threat of Sovictisation, despite the assurances of M. Stalin supported by action similar to Wilno (Vilna), where the Russians are reported to have executed selfappointed Soviet citizens Who shot bourgeois leaders before the Russians arrived, but the presence of the Russians is visibly enlivening the most active radicals.

The Riga correspondent of The Times says it is reliably reported from Kaunas .that the Lithuanian-German negotiations are progressing for the return of Memci to Lithuania for 55 years as part of the bargain whereby Germany withdraws from the Baltic in Russia’s favour.