FIGHT TO THE DEATH

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20918, 25 September 1939, Page 7

FIGHT TO THE DEATH

BOMBARDMENT OF HEL DESTRUCTION OF HOSPITALS SLAUGHTER BY TERRORISTS (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Sept. 25, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 24 The Poles are fighting to the death on Hel Peninsula, and are still under heavy bombardment from land and sea. A German communique says: “Our navy joined in the renewed bombardment of Hel.” A message from Warsaw says German artillery destroyed four churches and three hospitals, which were filled with wounded. The Times correspondent on the Lithuanian frontier says that here and there the Poles have desperately resisted the Russians, particularly at Grodno, where street fighting continued. The Russian method of occupying unresisting towns and hamlets consists of sending in motor cycles or motor cars with a few soldiers, who paste up bills giving 24 hours’ notice to quit. Many of the inhabitants steal away and hide, but ultimate escape is unlikely. The occupation begins the next day, with varying degrees of ceremony, local soviets being formed. The new order is functioning almost completely in Vilna, Bamowicze and other Western White Russian towns. The Munkacs correspondent of the American Press says the large-scale transportation of Polish military and civilian refugees to Lower Hungary has begun. Russian and Hungarian troops formally contacted in the Carpathians. Mad Killing by Terrorists Eight thousand Polish soldiers who were crossing the frontier before the Russians appeared had to fight a rearguard action, in which bands of Ukrainian terrorists killed many. Others despairingly committed suicide. A Polish priest disclosed that the terrorists lined up 40 Catholic theological students at Lwow and shot them “in a mad lust to strike anything godly.” Polish officers said that the Russians told them that they did not want to fight the Poles. They added that the Russians were rounding up Ukrainian terrorists and distributing food.