BLOCKADE OF GDYNIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1939, Page 7

BLOCKADE OF GDYNIA

ANNOUNCED BY GERMANY.

THE NEWS IN AMERICA.

BOMBING OF POLISH CITIES.

LONDON, September 1, A German blockade of Gdynia Harbour is announced. The Berlin radio warns all Baltic shipping that the entrance from Gdynia is closed, and every ship entering or leaving risks a danger of being destroyed. The radio earlier warned all foreigners that Polish territory was in the danger zone and their presence there was at their own' peril, owing to the likelihood of military action. The German Reichstag met at 10 a.m. in order to hear a statement from Herr Hitler. New York reports that Herr Hitler, in a broadcast address from the Reichstag, said that in answer to the “Polish general mobilisation’’ which greeted his last demands he had decided to speak to the Poles “in the same language” in which they were speaking to him. > Herr Hitler declared that Germany is to “meet bomb with bomb.” He named Field-Marshal Goering as his successor “should anything happen to me in this struggle.” Herr Hess was named as his second heir. Residents of Gleiwitz reported artillery fire in the distance at 5.30 a.m. Telephonic communication with Danzig is impossible. IL is believed the Poles have cut the lines across the frontier. The Berlin radio has warned the eastern German communities against a danger of bombing from Polish planes. Warlike orders poured from the radio while the people were still asleep and the streets were quiet. It also blared out martial music. German ships and foreigners in the danger zones have been given urgent warnings, and a blockade of the Polish port of Gdynia is announced. President Roosevelt has directed all naval ships and army commands to be notified immediately by radio of the hostilities between Germany and Poland. A White House statement added: “The President received word at 2.5 C a.m. (eastern standard time) by tele- ■ phone from Ambassador Biddle at Warsaw and Ambassador Bullitt at Paris that Germany had invaded Poland and four Polish cities were being bombed.” Notices have been posted throughout Berlin mobilising the A.R.P. forces. Wardens knocked up sleepers, warning them to be ready for air raids.