15 September 1939

The day in dispatches

Filed through the day, as it happened

Newest first

23:55GMT

22:30GMT

AnalysisPDThe Paris Dispatch

The French advance in the Saar reaches the German fortified line

PARIS The French advance in the Saar has reached the main German fortified line and halted in front of it.

21:20GMT

AnalysisALThe Atlantic Ledger

Canada creates a War Supply Board to handle all war purchasing

OTTAWA Canada has put all of its war purchasing under a single War Supply Board. An order in council signed today, P.C. 2696, gives the board authority to contract for war materials, to organize plants for production, and to coordinate deliveries. It takes over from the Defence Purchasing Board.

20:20GMT

WireAPSAllied Press Service

South Africa takes emergency powers at home

CAPE TOWN South Africa has proclaimed a set of war measures covering its own population, Reuters reports from Cape Town.

19:20GMT

AnalysisFECThe Far Eastern Courier

Moscow and Tokyo reported to have agreed to end the Mongolian frontier fighting

HONG KONG The Soviet Government and Japan have reached an agreement to end the fighting on the Mongolian frontier, according to reports from Moscow.

18:00GMT

WireAPSAllied Press Service

Berlin says Warsaw is completely encircled

BERLIN Warsaw is completely encircled and cut off from the rest of Poland, according to a German announcement issued in Berlin and carried today by DNB, the official German news agency.

17:00GMT

AnalysisLSThe London Sentinel

More than 30 hurt in an explosion at a Liverpool works

LIVERPOOL More than 30 people were hurt in an explosion at a Liverpool works yesterday afternoon. Many of them are burned, and several are described as serious.

16:00GMT

AnalysisNYRThe New York Register

Hull says the United States has given up no neutral right

WASHINGTON The United States has abandoned none of its rights as a neutral under international law and will take practical measures if those rights are interfered with, Secretary of State Cordell Hull told the warring governments yesterday.

14:30GMT

AnalysisSOThe Stockholm Observer

Estonia interns the Polish submarine Orzeł at Tallinn

STOCKHOLM Estonia has interned the Polish submarine Orzeł, which is under Estonian guard at Tallinn this afternoon.

11:15GMT

WireAPSAllied Press Service

Bulgaria proclaims neutrality

SOFIA Bulgaria has proclaimed its neutrality in the war between Germany and the Allied powers.

09:30GMT

WireAPSAllied Press Service

Polish radio claims ten German tanks captured at Lwów

WARSAW A German motorised attack on Lwów was thrown back yesterday and ten tanks and an armoured car were captured, Polish radio says. It says several bombers were also brought down, in weather it describes as bad.

07:20GMT

AnalysisIRThe Imperial Review

Congress asks Britain to state its war aims before India cooperates

LONDON The Congress Working Committee has made India's cooperation in the war conditional on Britain stating what the war is for. Britain could meet the condition with a declaration, at no cost in territory.

05:40GMT

CommuniquéAPSAllied Press Service

Congress Working Committee sets conditions for India's support in the war

WARDHA The Working Committee of the Indian National Congress met at Wardha, in the Central Provinces, and agreed a statement on India and the war. Its principal passages were cabled from India overnight and reached the agencies this morning. Congress holds ministries in most Indian provinces but is not a government, and the statement carries no authority of state. Two passages from it follow. The full statement is longer than what the cables carried.

Official statement

Official text

If the war is to defend the status quo, imperialist possessions, colonies, vested interests and privilege, then India can have nothing to do with it. If Great Britain fights for the maintenance and extension of democracy, then she must necessarily end imperialism in her own possessions, establish full democracy in India, and the Indian people must have the right of self-determination.

03:00GMT

WireAPSAllied Press Service

Borah tells a national radio audience that repealing the embargo means intervention

WASHINGTON Repealing the arms embargo would amount to American intervention in the European war, Senator William Borah of Idaho has told a nationwide radio audience.

Where things stood at the start of the day

Gdynia: Berlin announced on the 14th that its troops had entered Gdynia that morning and that the garrison was surrendering. Three hours later the German account was still the only one there was.
Washington: Senator Borah was due to broadcast against repeal of the arms embargo on the evening of the 14th. Congress meets on 21 September.
Britain: labour: The Commons gave the Minister of Labour a veto on the hiring of key workers, 223 to one. Committee stage was promised for the following day.
Britain: evacuation: Colville gave Scotland's evacuees to the Commons as 175,000, of whom 135,000 were children. He would not say how many had gone home.
Britain: enemy aliens: The Government counted 50,000 enemy aliens in Britain, most of them refugees, and said each case would be heard one by one.
Bombing policy: Chamberlain told the Commons that Britain would not attack civilians for the purpose of terror, so long as Germany showed the same restraint.

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