NAZI ULTIMATUM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1939, Page 5

NAZI ULTIMATUM

SURRENDER OF WARSAW DEMANDED

THREAT OF INTENSIFIED BOMBARDMENT.

CITY TO BE COMPLETELY DESTROYED.

By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright.

LONDON, September 16. The German High Command presented a 12-hour ultimatum which will expire at 3 a.m. tomorhow, calling on Warsaw to surrender, according to a German radio broadcast at midnight. The same station announced that the Polish commander, General Czuma, refusto comply.

War planes later roared over the city, dropping millions of leaflets containing the text of the ultimatum, which demanded the surrender of the city and garrison. If this was refused, the civilians would be given 12 hours to evacuate by two specified routes, after which Warsaw would be considered a military objective and become an active theatre of war.

The German army authorities later issued a twelve-hour ultimatum to the people to leave the city. It was stated that bombardment was likely at any time after 3 p.m. on Sunday. The German radio explained that there was no example in history of an army behaving as chivalrously, fairly and generously as the Germans to Warsaw. The Munich radio also announced that Warsaw would be completely destroyed unless it surrendered at 3 a.m., The ultimatum obviously is an earnest of things to come.

The Germans launched a terrific artillery bombardment last night.

The Polish Government announced by radio that Warsaw was now almost a single torch of flame. Two hundred heavy German guns are pouring in shells and incendiary bombs. Most of the civilians arc taking refuge in cellars. Buildings are collapsing and catching on fire, and hundreds have been killed, including invalids and children. The Lithuanian Legation and a Protestant church were destroyed by lowflying planes. Four hundred fires are raging in various parts of the city.

According to a Daventry broadcast yesterday, the German Military Command claimed that up to the present it had refrained from bombing the city. When the time limit for the ultimatum expired, however, it intended to bomb the city as a military objective. This claim, the Daventry broadcast pointed out, was meaningless in view of the repeated air raids that had already been launched against the city. A Warsaw message stated that yesterday was the first occasion on which the city had been both bombed and shelled, and that this combined fire was the heaviest to which the city had up to that point been subjected. The casualties, including civilians, were heavy, and many buildings, including a hospital, were destroyed.

Before conveying the German ultimatum by leaflets dropped from planes over the city, a German officer, waving a white flag, had asked to be taken to the commander of the garrison for the purpose of delivering the ultimatum. The commander refused to receive him.

Al present this is the only ground for saying that the Poles have rejected the ultimatum.