Helsinki, Oct. 13.
The Finnish Foreign Minister, M. Ellias Erkko, today broadcast to the Scandinavian countries a speech which it had also been intended to broadcast to America. The American broadcast was cancelled at the last minute, however, because the authorities refused to transmit it, owing to wartime restrictions, MI Erkko said in his speech: "Nations like Finland have been compelled to take precautionary measures to preserve their safety, integrity, independence and neutrality. The sole aim is to show our great desire to keep free from any Obligations which might draw us into adventures."
Emergency preparations were intensified in Finland following reports from travellers from Russia that large numbers of Soviet mechanized troops have assembled near the Finnish frontier. Besides mobilizing about 100,000 men, the Finnish authorities are now commandeering private cars, transferring oil stocks to country districts, removing the contents of museums and libraries to safety areas, sandbagging the roofs of buildings, ordering the emptying of inflammable material from attics and erecting air-raid shelters in city streets and court-yards.
The evacuation of civilians from Helsinki ahd other large industrial towns near the Russian border is progressing in orderly manner.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.