CITY A SHAMBLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1940, Page 5

CITY A SHAMBLES

RUSSIANS CLOSING IN ON VIBORG FINNS MAKING ATTACKERS PAY DEARLY. METHODICAL WITHDRAWAL. The latest advice on the fighting in Finland (reported Daventry last night) states that the Russian occupation of Viborg is making slow progress. Only the southern part of the city has so far been taken. The Finns are withdrawing methodically and are making the Russians pay dearly. The- city is a shambles. Though surrounded on three sides, an earlier report stated, the Finns had been able to repair the railway line to enable essential requirements to be evacuated and to keep up resistance while new positions were being thrown up across the isthmus. A Press Association message from Moscow says that the southern part of Viborg was set on fire by the retreating Finns. A Russian bomb wrecked the German Consulate, and the contents lie open to view. In one room some underwear still dangles from the line where it was put to dry. The flag of former Imperial Germany lies on the floor. On one wall a signed portrait of Herr Hitler himself is askew. A piece of shell has smashed the Fuehrer’s face, and the two edges of his moustache are several inches apart. This effect, was caused by a Russian bomb. HELP FROM ABROAD RELEASE OF CANADIAN VOLUNTEERS. i MANSION HOUSE MEETING. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, March 2. It is reported from Ottawa that the Canadian Government announced it would sanction the enlistment of Canadians for service in Finland. It is stressed that the Government is-not permitting the taking of the oath within Canada, but is not restricting volunteers from leaving Canada to join the Finns. The announcement makes void the application of the Foreign Enlistment Act passed during the Spanish Civil War. Washington reports that President Roosevelt’s first act on his return from inspecting the defences of the Panama Canal was to sign the Export and Import Bill. (This will enable £7.500.000 to be lent to Finland for making non-military purchases in the United States.) A largely-attended meeting at the Mansion House, London, yesterday, under the auspices of the British Finland Fund, was addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who spoke of the world-wide indignation at the wanton assault by a great Power on a small peace-loving nation, the only reason for which, he said, was the Russian desire to increase her power and resources at Finland’s expense. Finland, the Archbishop said, was truly a protector of civilisation, and he continued: “Many must wish we could help Finland in the form she most needs —with manpower. But we must remember the responsibility resting upon the Government and our ally in the struggle in which we are engaged. "We must also remember with sympathy the position of Finland's neighbours, menaced as they are by Germany on the one side and Russia upon the other.” The Labour peer. Lord Snell, said the Finnish Minister, M. Gripenberg, also spoke, the latter saying his people, wishing no harm to anyone, and with a desire only to live in peace, had yet been subjected to daily bombing and shelling. The president of the fund said the appeal had met with a generous response, and now totalled £lBO.OOO, but unlimited support was required to meet the needs of the next few months.