Evening star., 1940-01-04
Versions Of War
From Scandinavia
Fantastic, Say Reds
Embassy Warns Against
Hosty Conclusions on
Doubtful Evidence
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
LONDON, Jan. IA Soviet Rus
sian charge that fantastic" ver-
sions of the war with Finland were
originating in Scandinavian capitals
as we'll as Helsinki provided an ar
gumentative accompaniment today
for series of diplomatic maneuvers
pivoting on Moscow.
A statement by the press bureau
Of Russia's London Embassy eau
toned against "hasty conclusions
based on doubtful evidence" on the
Red campaign against Finland.
The statement was issued about
the time the Italian Ambassador to
Soviet Russia left Moscow last night,
a day after departure of the British
Ambassador, and while Hungarian
Foreign Minister Count Stefan
Csaky travelled to Italy with mpor-
tant diplomatic talks in prospect.
Russia and Balkans Topic.
Budapest diplomatic circles said
Csaky's visit would include talks
with Italian leaders on possible
Balkan move by Russia, probably
centering on what would happen II
Russia marched into Rumanian
Bessarabia.
Hungarians declared Italy would
support Hungarian advance into
Rumanian Transylvania to secure
the Carpathian Mountain barrier
against Russia if the Reds invaded
the Balkans.
Dispatches from Moscow said the
departure of the italian envoy. Au-
gusto Rosso, apparently was ignored
by Soviet officials. None appeared to
bid him good-by at the station-in
contrast to the farewell for Ger
man economic expert who left by
the same train.
Vladimir N. Barkoff, chief Of
protocol in the Soviet commissariat
of foreign affairs, said good-by to
the German. DR.. Karl Ritter, who
had conducted German-Russian
trade talks
The Italian diplomat left almost
an unobtrusively as the Russian AM
bassador to Rome. Nicolai Gorel-
chin, went home three weeks ago.
Diplomatic quarters in Rome viewed
Rosso's homecoming as conse-
quence of Gorelchin's leave-taking.
No Indication of Strain.
In the British and Italian diplo-
matte moves there was no outright
indication of diplomatic strain.
Officially they were merely leaves" I"
The departure from Moscow of the
British Ambassador, Sir William
Seeds, "a hours earlier was termed
q vacation" and London officials
insisted it had no connection with
the forthcoming publication Of a
White paper on last summers fruit
less talks toward British-French-
Russian alliance.
The Russian Embassy press bureau
declared in its statement that Rus
sian air raids had been described
in "lurid terms" It referred to re-
ports of civilian casualties and said:
after all, reports of a leading
news agency December Z9 estimate
civilian casualties at only 100 killed
and 100 wounded. The absurdity
Of accusations against the Red air
force are seen in a comparison with
the 70 killed and 3637 wounded in
q Japanese air raid on Chung
king"
At Geneva last night League of
Nations officials released texts Of
British and French notes to the ef-
feet that the allies were giving Fin
land as much war aid as their own
war with Germany would permit.
The notes gave no further indica-
tion of the extent of allied aid
italian sources in Bern at the same
time said 1000 italian technictans
were "in or on their way to Fin
1and