SOVIET WIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 March 1921, Page 5

SOVIET WIN.

CAPTURE OF KRONSTADT. REBELS FIGHT TILL THE LAST. HOPE GF ULTIMATE VICTORY. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Copenhagen, March 18. The Bolsheviks sent swarms of Chin" ese and others from the Carolian headland to attack Kronstadt on Thursday. The situation became critical in the afternoon and batteries 4, 5 and 6, situated on the extreme outskirts, surrendered and the Communists within Kronstadt united with the attackers. A decisive figh ensued. The garrison, numbering 15.000, were exhausted after several days’ incessant fighting. Crowds of refugees escaped across the ice to Finland. Received March 20, 5.5 p.m. London, March 19. Helsingfors telegrams report that the final conquest of Kronstadt occurred at two o’clock on Friday after the distribution of the last rations and munitions. Though nearing exhaustion the soldiers fought on until the ammunition gave out. The Amsterdam Red Cross has taken charge of 12,500 refugees and is housing them in former German concentration camps. The majority, despite Kronstadt’s fall, predict ths overthrow of the Bolsheviks in the spring, sailors declaring that their motto is still “Victory or death.” Koslowski escaped. He confirms the destruction of the fortress guns and the blowing up of Petropavlofski and Debastopol prior to Kronstadt’s fall. A Moscow wireless message re-asserts with details that ex-Teirist White Guard officers, disguised as sailors and Red troops, directed the rising.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.