NEWS BY RADIO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 September 1939, Page 8

NEWS BY RADIO

BRITISH TROOPS IN FRANCE OFFICIAL INTIMATION. FRENCH REPORT CONTINUED PROGRESS. The following reports, issued from the shortwave station at Daventry lEngland) have been rebroadcast by the New Zealand national stations:— In an official announcement that British troops and units of the R.A.F. were in France, it was stated that the men were not yet in action and that no further details would be furnished meantime. All sections of the British Expeditionary Force were given a warm welcome in France.

A French war communique states that progress continues on the same front as on the previous day. There had been strong reaction on the part of the enomy, especially from their artillery. French troops, using heavy tanks and machine-guns, were again battling on the outposts of the Siegfried Line. Positions previously gained have been consolidated and German counter-attacks successfully resisted. A German movement near the Luxembourg frontier had produced no results and had been wiped out. The main body of French troops were not yet in action.

The German High Command’s report on the Western Front stated that there had been local fighting between advance posts and that no bombs had been dropped on German territory. The fifth day of the siege of Warsaw finds the Poles still in possession of their capital. A German attack near the city is said by the Poles to have been repulsed and two tanks had been captured. German forces in north Poland. are reported to have r,un short of petrol supplies. German claims of advances in east .and north-east Poland and in south Poland are denied by the Poles, who state that there has been no major change in the position. The bombing of Warsaw is continuing, 17 raids .being carried out in the day, with the loss of two planes

It is reported that a Slovak battalion refused t.o entrain and fight against the Poles. They were disarmed .and interned. The Germans have forbidden all flights by Slovak airmen, on the ground that German troops were not familiar with their machines and they might be shot down. The real reason might be the numerous desertions of Slovak airmen to the Poles. •It is stated that men of 47 and 48, many World War veterans, are being called up in Germany, on account of their military experience and so as to avoid disturbance of younger meii engaged in vital industries. Four British merchantmen have evaded submarines but two others are reported to have been sunk. The crews were saved.

Canada’s wheat crop is likely to be the largest since 1928 .and the fourth largest on yeqord. A total of 45,000 men and women in Palestine have registered under the Jewish Agency’s and National Council’s scheme of offering assistance to Britain. The men have .expressed their willingness to serve in the British Army. Many are ex-officers of the German, Austrian and Czechoslovak armies.

At Nairobi the Secretariat buildings were burnt out. All documents except secret war napers were destroyed. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor have arrived in England, after< an absence of nearly three years.

The Home Office, through the Ministry of Information, states that an allegation in a German broadcast that Germans in the United Kingdom were being arrested and their property confiscated is quite untrue. No obstacles are being placed in the way of .any nationals who wish to leave the country and no property has been confiscated.

According to Reuters a report from Poland states that Lodz has been recaptured by the Poles from the Germans. A Polish force which had been in danger of being cut off, had now established contact with the main body of the Polish army south-west of Warsaw.