DECEMBER 4, 1939; RUSSIAN ARMY IN TROUBLE:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, DECEMBER 4, 1939:

MINES SLOW
ATTACK; BUT
GAINS CITED

Troops Meeting "Serious

Difficulties" In Finland,
Moscow Official Press
Reveals.

CLAIM ORDER GIVEN

NOT TO BOMB CITIES

BY HENRY SHAPIRO

(United Press Staff. Correspondent)
MOSCOW, Dec. 4.—(UP)— The official press today admitted that the red army was meeting serious difficulty as a result of Finnish land mines but declared that strict orders had been given soviet aviators against bombardment of civilians. - - "Violation of these orders will be severely punished," the official communist party newspaper Pravda said.

'Remember once more that the red army is not fighting the Finnish people and is not fighting civilians. Not one bomb must be thrown at a human dwelling."

FINNS AFRAID

ENEMY PLANS
GAS ATTACKS
German Ship Leaves Helsinki
With Refugees;
More Bombing Expected
With Its Departure.
AMERICANS FLEE
FIGHTING ZONES

BY NORMAN B. DEUEL

(United Press Staff, correspondent,}
HELSINKI, Dec. 4.-(UP)-The German steamer Donau sailed late today with German colonists and other foreigners, while reports spread that Russian filers planned to bombard the city with poison gas.

Most of the civil population had fled but the cabinet remained and Premier RIsti Rytl declared that he would "not leave the capital until it became most necessary."

The departure of the Donau was considered an ill omen; Forty members of the Russian legation were aboard, in addition to several hundred Germans.' Italians and Ethiopians, and its presence here had been the best guarantee that the Russians would not unleash the terrible aerial bombardment _ they were .said ' to have' threatened in handbills dropped "on. the city during the. week-end.

NOTHING CAN

BE GAINED IS
VIEW OF FDR

U. S. Won't Recognize

Conquest If Achieved;
Joint Statement by 21
Republics Pondered.

RED PACT OBJECT

OF ATTACK BY GOP

WASHINGTON. Dec. 4-(UP)—

Recall of U. S. Ambassador Imireice A. Stelnhardt or severance of United States relations with the Soviet Union appeared today to be equally remote in view of authoritative indications that the administration does not feel either action would be to the advantage of this nation or of world peace.

That summation of official judgment—as of today—came to the United Press from an adequately qualified spokesman but with a stipulation against revealing source of the Information.

It was stated semi-officially that the United States would refuse lo recognize the conquest of Finland if the Soviet. Union overruns that nation. This government already has refused to recognize conquest of aggression in Mnnchukuo, Ethiopia, Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Albania and Poland.