Russians Invade Poland

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1939, Page 5

Russians Invade Poland

Border Crossed On 500-Mile Front

“IN ORDER TO PROTECT SOVIET INTERESTS AND UKRAINIAN MINORITIES” Action Declared To Be In Maintenance of Neutrality POLISH REPORTS OF FIGHTING STARTED (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) BERLIN, September 17. The Propaganda Ministry reports that Russian troops invaded Poland at 4 a.m. Moscow time. The Soviet before taking this action handed the Polish Ambassador a Note informing him that Soviet troops were crossing the Polish frontier at 4 a.m. cn n -t r A later Berlin message stated that the crossing was effective on the entire 500-mile frontier from Polotsk in the north to Kamanets Podolski in the south “in order to protect the Soviet’s own interests and the Russo-White Ukrainian minorities. The (Soviet insisted that she was maintaining her neutrality despite the military action, but the treaties between Russia and Poland had been cancelled because the Polish State could no longer be regarded as existent. . Polish sources state that fighting started between the Russians and the Poles at 5.20 a.m. Writing before the invasion took place, the Berlin correspondent of the “New York Times’’ said that how far and how soon Russia intended to advance into Poland was not clear. It had been expected since Herr von Ribbentrop and M. Molotov discussed the partition of Poland, but France and Britain would then be compelled to go to war against the Soviet, which Russia sought to avoid and was looking for a legal loophole to make the British and French pledges inoperative. Such a loophole might be available if the Poles crossed the Polish-Russian frontier or the White Russia Ukraine rebelled against Poland.

It is announced in a Daventry broadcast that the Polish Ambassador in London states that the Polish forces are resisting the Russian advance at all points.

A Note containing a declaration that Russia would maintain its neutrality and that its only desire was to keep the peace in Eastern Poland, was stated to have been sent to all diplomatic representatives in Moscow but there was no confirmation of this, stated the Daventry announcement.

M. Molotov, in a broadcast, had stated that the Polish Government no longer existed, that the population of Poland had been almost destroyed and most of the leading industrial and manufacturing centres, lost. In its present state Poland was therefore a danger to the Soviet and the Russian people and the Soviet had felt obliged to go to the assistance of the White Russian and Ukrainian peoples in Poland. The orders to the army had been to defend these people and to protect and free them from servitude. The Soviet would continue its policy of neutrality in the major conflict.