TURNED DOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1941, Page 5

TURNED DOWN

UNITED STATES NOTE TO FINLAND REFUSAL TO CEASE ATTACK ON RUSSIA. DENIAL THAT PEACE OFFER WAS RECEIVED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 12. It was officially announced in Helsinki this morning that Finland has rejected the United States’ “stop the war” warning. “The fighting,” the statement said, “will be halted only when the danger to Finland has been removed and a guarantee of our safety given. Finland must refuse to withdraw her troops from the territory she has occupied.” The announcement added that Finland hoped soon to withdraw a certain number of troops and send them back to civilian work. It also declared that the American Assistant Secretary of State, Mr Welles, did not inform the Finnish Minister in Washington of any Russian peace conditions, or offer to mediate, nor did he make any recommendations. The Finnish Government did ot have the impression that Mr Welles’s declaration was intended as an offer of peace from the Soviet Union. Official Russian comment on the Finnish statement was made by the Chief of the Information Bureau, M. Lozovsky, at Kuibyshev, stating: “The furious campaign in the German Press against the United States Note to Finland shows that the American Secretary of State, Mr Hull, has inflicted a heavy blow on the Germans. The Finnish Government is dependent on Germany and has no wish to give a really straightforward reply to the United States Note.” Reports to London make it evident that in the fighting at the northern end of the Russian front Finnish troops are still taking an active part.' Helsinki war correspondents, quoted by the Swedish Press, state that Finnish ski patrols are operating east of the Murmansk railway which, they sayi has been blown up at several