DELEGATION RETURNS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 October 1939, Page 5

DELEGATION RETURNS

REPORTING TO CABINET. ANOTHER VISIT TO MOSCOW POSSIBLE. HELSINKI, October 16. The Finnish delegation arrived from Moscow today to report to the Cabinet. Optimism prevails on the prospect of a friendly settlement. The main railway station at Helsinki was crowded with thousands of people to welcome the leading delegate, Dr Paaskivi, on his return yesterday, a radio report states. Among those present were the President, M Kallio, members of the Cabinet and the Swedish Minister in Finland. It is expected that Dr Paaskivi will return to Moscow on Thursday, but this will depend on the Stockholm conference tomorrow. A more hopeful statement has been issued regarding the Finnish negotiations with Russia, Daventry reports. Although the position is serious, there is some hope of a practical solution. The Finnish Government, it is stated, will go as far as possible to find a way out. The Finnish envoy to Moscow returned to Moscow this morning and held a conference with the Finnish Foreign Minister and members of Cabinet. A neutral commentator, referring io the German evacuation of the Baltic, says that the Germans have lost everything in the Baltic without a single blow being struck and that 700 years of German influence in Baltic states had been destroyed. In Riga German banks are closing down. About 35.000 Germans are preparing to leave. One explanation is that Hitler sold his interests there for gold and .that Stalin demanded these withdrawals before sending the first consignment to Berlin. (A message from Kaunas on October 11 stated: —“A consignment of 171 tons of gold from Moscow passed through Lithuania by rail for Berlin today, apparently under obligations arising from the recent German-Soviet economic agreement.”)