Helsinki, Dec. 20.
The end of the first' month of Soviet-Finnish conflict was marked at dawn today with a Soviet offend sive across Lake Suvanto, whose frozen surface was littered with corpses after the Red attackers were turned back under withering machinegun fire, a General Staff commun! que announced here this evening.
'At Suomosalmi, meanwhile, the steady fighting of the past few days took a turn in the Finns' favour to: day, 2 Havas correspondent reports Along the rest of the front, activity was limited and Finnish forces retained all their positions.
The official Finnish communique fon the day's war operations stated: "Soviet artillery was active at, several points in Karelia today, At dawn, the Reds were repulsed in'an attack across Lake Suvanto. Two" Soviet tanks were destroyed between Summa and Muollajaervi, On the eastern front, Finnish troops turned back an attack in the Kitela sector, north of Lake Ladoga. Fighting raged all day on the front between. Hongkoja and Syskiaervi and the Finns improved their positions. At Kuhmo, in the Ricks sector, the Russians were driven back to the frontier. The day was quiet on the sea. Soviet warplanes, however, were active and bombed the cities of Kexholm, Wasa and Jyvaeskylae, All victims were civilians.
Finnish Airmen Active inrush planes carried out 9 cer tain number of reconnaissance flights and shot down two Soviet planes' the Finnish General Staff communique concluded.
"According to other sources, air raid sirens shrilled their warning today ju the suburbs of Helsinki, but no raid followed.
Military experts, analysing the situation on the front following a month's severe fighting under arctic conditions, stated tonight that the Finns still control the whole of their front from Lake Ladoga in the south to the Arctic Ocean in the north.
Soviet troops, despite overwhelm~ ing superiority in. numbers and equipment, have gained a foothold only in far northern Pelsamo and, at the other extreme, Salla in the south. Red Army efforts to cut Finland in two at the narrowest point, between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Soviet frontier in central Finland, to date have met only with miserable failure. Soviet advances from the north are not disquieting, military observers pointed out. All this time, arctic Finnish cold, snowstorms and fee, the dificult terrain and the high morale and fighting ability of the Finnish Army are claiming their toll from the invading forces.—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.