January 19, 1940; RUSSIANS ABANDON DRIVE IN FINLAND:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JANUARY 19. 1940:

Russians, After Hammering Vainly

For Weeks, Suddenly Abandon
Drive, Retreat in Haste
TWO OTHER DIVISIONS
ARE REPORTED IN PERIL
Invaders, Hungry and Frost-Bitten,
Fight Rear-Guard Action ;
In 50-Below Weather

HELSINKI, Jan. 18.—(AP) —Russian forces, routed within striking distance of success in an attempt to cut Finland in two with a highway and rail drive, tonight were reported fighting a bitter rear-guard battle in a desperate attempt to escape to their frontier.

Advices from the Lapland front, just above the Arctic circle, said that the Soviet troops, after hammering vainly at Finnish defenses for six weeks, suddenly abandoned their trenches, retreated toward their own border near Salla and were fighting desperately tonight to get safely:

Away

Two other Soviet divisions were likewise reported in difficulties some distances north and east of this activity!

Forge Too Far Ahead |
The retreating Red troops had penetrated farther Into Finland than any other of the invading armies, having reached JoutsiJarvi, 65 miles from the Russian  border on a direct line and much farther than that along the southwestward route which! they followed. They were only18 miles east of Kemijarvi, strategic rail head which was their immediate goal. '

The Russians hoped that bj{ driving over theSa,lla –highway and this railroad in Kemi, they could cut off southern Finland  frbm the north and block the overland route by which Finland receives important supplies from Sweden.

 

 

Commerce-Canny English Clamor For Appointment

Of Economic Warfare Overlord to Dam Up

Last Trickle of Nazi Foreign Trade

LONDON Jan. 18.— (AP)— Commerce-canny Britons, pushing shillings to the front like soldiers in a vast siege of Nazi staying power, tonight demanded appointment of an economic warfare overlord to apply an even more relentless stranglehold to Germany.

Wasteful Delay Attacked

Satisfaction over the report of Economic Warfare Minister Ronald H. Cross to the effect that Germany already has been pinched to the needy stage of 1916 was tempered by increased neutral and British ship losses and the outcry that men and munitions could be spared by freer use of British gold to dam the trickle of Nazi trade.

Neutral nations lost four ships today; Britain one and Germany one—to war and weather.

Lord Beaverbrook's E v e n i n g Standard, claiming overlapping between the several ministries dealing with economic and foreign affairs and "wasteful: delays in our export trade," said L. S. Amery was the man for the job of economic warfare overseer.

Amery. 66, small, sturdy mountain climber and gymnast, has been called a "pocket Hercules." He long has been known as a trade expert and an advocate of war debt settlement with the U. S, He has been first lord of the admiralty, colonial secretary and dominion secretary

Rumania Or

Hungary Next?

German Troops Reported

Streaming Over Border
Into Russia

LONDON, Jan. 19.— (Friday) —(INS)—Large bodies of German troops are reported crossing the Soviet-German border into Russia, the Daily Express said today in a dispatch from Budapest.

The German military forces are said to be streaming across the new frontier running through Poland's former territory and are heading in two directions— one column eastward and the other southeastward toward the region where Russia adjoins Rumania and Hungary, the dispatch said.

Loaded German troop trains and lorries, the message said, have been seen going through the former Polish cities of Lwow (Lemberg), Drohobycz and Stanislawow.

Several theories are advanced in Budapest regarding the reported German troop movements, according to the dispatch to the Express. One is that the Nazi forces are being concentrated in the Black sea regions to reinforce Russian troops there.
The Budapest message from the British newspaper's correspondent said German sources for weeks have warned that an
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Rumania, Hungary
Next For Germany?
Continued from Page 1)
Anglo - French - Turkish army, under command of Gen. Maxime "Weygand, is being organized in Turkey, threatening an offensive against Russia's rich Baku oil fields. The correspondent pointed out that the British oil fields in Iraq also fit into the picture since they are located in the same general region.

Another theory, he cabled his paper, is that the Nazi regime has become alarmed over the unsatisfactory state of railway communications from Rumania through Russian-Occupied Poland" and wishes to safeguard these communications against sabotage. It is therefore believed, the Budapest dispatch said, that the German troops are being lined along these railways to make sure of a constant flow of Rumanian oil and wheat to Germany.