military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (01/15/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Monday, 15 January 1940 Soviet artillery bombards Finnish positions in the Mannerheim line throughout the day, concentrating around Summa. France introduces meat rationing, requiring citizens to observe 3 "meatless" days per week. The Paris Foreign Office suggests that Germany and Russia are planning joint campaigns in Scandinavia and the Balkans, and warn that they will aid any neutral so attacked. Britain officially, and politely, rejects the Pan-American Neutrality zone announced in the Declaration of Panama. The Declaration provides for a 300-mile zone around the Americas from which belligerent warships would be excluded. Britain declines to surrender its right to attack enemy warships and merchantmen within this zone unless it can be guaranteed that the zone will not provide a haven for German ships. Belgium refuses an Allied request to allow military units to cross its territory. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Did Japan bluster and threaten war after these abrupt and very direct warnings from our govenment ? She did not. " - Henry Stimson, former Secretary of State, referring to US diplomatic pressures on Japan