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The day in dispatches
Filed through the day, as it happened
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Ten days in, governments are reorganising themselves for a long war
The position at Warsaw is unsettled tonight. Berlin said yesterday that its troops had reached the centre of the city, and says today that they came out again. Warsaw radio is still broadcasting and says the defenders are giving ground slowly.
21:00GMT
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Roosevelt extends US neutrality and the arms embargo to Canada
WASHINGTON President Roosevelt has issued two proclamations applying American neutrality law to the war between Germany and Canada.
20:20GMT
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Canada took seven days and a parliamentary vote to go to war
OTTAWA Canada declared war this afternoon, seven days after Britain. Ottawa has made little secret of wanting the gap to be noticed.
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Canada's proclamation of war: a state of war exists
OTTAWA Canada's proclamation of war was published in a special edition of the Canada Gazette this afternoon. It was made by the Governor General, Lord Tweedsmuir, with the approval of the King, and it is the document that puts Canada at war. The text follows.
Governor General of Canada
Official text
Proclamation, Canada Gazette Extra, Volume LXXIII, No. 12, 10 September 1939
18:40GMT
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Canada declares war on Germany
OTTAWA Canada is at war with Germany.
18:00GMT
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Argentina cancels trial flights by a German-owned airline
BUENOS AIRES Argentina has cancelled permits for trial flights planned by a German-owned South American airline.
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Berlin changes its account of Warsaw, and all three accounts lack detail
STOCKHOLM Berlin said yesterday that German troops had reached the centre of Warsaw, and says today that those troops withdrew to the outskirts to wait for the main army. Berlin has given no explanation for the change.
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Scottish refugee council to help German refugees who survived the Athenia
GLASGOW The Scottish National Council for Refugees says it will give financial help to refugees from Germany who were aboard the Athenia.
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London opens 110 citizens' advice centres
LONDON Citizens' advice centres have opened at 110 places across London. They deal with separation allowances, rent and hire-purchase agreements.
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Jewish Agency and Arab Higher Committee each offer Britain support on separate terms
JERUSALEM The Jewish Agency's offer of assistance to Britain extends beyond Palestine, Moshe Shertok says, and Jewish volunteers could serve with British forces elsewhere.
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TASS names five military districts in the Soviet call-up
MOSCOW The Soviet Union is calling up reservists in five military districts: Ukraine, White Russia, Moscow, Kalinin and Orel. TASS, the Soviet state news agency, named the districts in a communiqué published in the Soviet press today. The communiqué gives Moscow's reason for the call-up. It leaves out how many men are involved and where they are going.
TASS
Official text
TASS is the Soviet state agency. This is the government's own account of its own mobilisation.
Tass communiqué, published in the Soviet press, 10 September 1939
12:50GMT
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Curtin says Labor will oppose conscription for overseas service
CANBERRA Federal Labor will oppose conscription for service overseas, the leader of Australia's Opposition, John Curtin, said in a broadcast from Canberra this evening.
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British steamers Winkleigh and Goodwood torpedoed, with all crew rescued
LONDON The British steamers Winkleigh and Goodwood have been torpedoed and sunk, and all crew members were rescued, the Ministry of Information says.
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French communiqué reports advances between the Saar and the Vosges
PARIS A series of "methodic actions" has produced advances between the Saar and the Vosges, a French communiqué says. It leaves the ground taken unnamed.
10:15GMT
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France puts capital, gold and foreign exchange under state control
PARIS France has prohibited the export of capital and placed dealings in gold and foreign exchange under state control. The decrees are dated yesterday and appear in the Journal Officiel this morning.
09:00GMT
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Berlin says its troops pulled back from central Warsaw to the outskirts
BERLIN The German motorised troops that reached central Warsaw yesterday have withdrawn to the outskirts to wait for the main army, a German government spokesman says.
07:30GMT
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Lwów told by radio to prepare for a siege
LWÓW Polish radio has told the people of Lwów to prepare to resist a siege on the scale of Warsaw's.
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Nehru tells Congress to end its quarrels and face the war crisis together
CALCUTTA Jawaharlal Nehru has told his Congress colleagues to end their petty bickerings and face the crisis together, in a message published this morning in the National Herald.
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Abe says Japan will stay out of the European war
TOKYO Japan is staying out of the European war, the Prime Minister, Nobuyuki Abe, says.
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Canadian Commons approves the Address backing entry into the war
OTTAWA The Canadian House of Commons has approved the Address supporting Canada's participation in the war. The vote came at 22:25 last night in Ottawa, which is 02:25 GMT.
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Warsaw radio still broadcasting and says defenders are giving ground slowly
Warsaw's defenders are giving ground slowly and German forces have made no important gains, Warsaw radio said in broadcasts monitored overnight.
Where things stood at the start of the day
- Poland
- Warsaw is still contested: Berlin says its troops entered the capital on Friday, Warsaw says that is false, and the Swedish Legation has told Stockholm the capital is not occupied. Warsaw's stations are still transmitting, and the Polish Government is reported moving east.
- The Atlantic
- Thirty of the 97 British merchant ships sheltering at Gibraltar have sailed under destroyer escort, and 67 remain. A list compiled in Montreal names 171 Athenia passengers unaccounted for, built from cables and incomplete survivor lists and not presented as a death toll.
- Britain at home
- The Government has told departments to plan for a war lasting at least three years: a planning assumption rather than a forecast, but one that rules out organising for a short war. A Polish military mission has reached London.
- Western Front
- The French High Command says the Warndt Forest, on German soil west of Forbach, is almost entirely in French hands, giving no line, dates or casualties. Air-raid alarms sounded twice over Berlin, the capital's first of the war, and no aircraft were seen.
- The Empire
- Canada has not declared war. Mackenzie King has told members that adopting the Address in Reply will be treated as authority to seek a proclamation of war, so the vote on the Address is the vote.
- Neutrals
- TASS says Soviet reserve classes are being called up because the German-Polish war is taking on a wide and menacing character, giving no numbers, classes or destinations. The largest neighbour of eastern Poland is mobilising reserves, and has chosen to say so in public.
Background
Seven days between Britain's war and Canada's
Britain declared war on 3 September. Canada declared war today. The gap is not hesitation: it is the machinery of a Dominion that decides for itself.
Since the Statute of Westminster of 1931, a Dominion is not carried into war by a British declaration. It has to declare for itself, and Canada has spent the week doing exactly that.
The sequence ran: Parliament recalled, the war debate held, the Address in Reply adopted late on Saturday night, the King's approval obtained, the proclamation issued by the Governor General, and publication in a special Extra edition of the Canada Gazette. The edition was printed to carry one document.