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Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime”.)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile.

Day 15 of the Winter War, December 14, 1939

Swedish border: the first foreign volunteers cross the border at Haaparanta and arrive at the reception centre in Tornio.
Photo: SA-KUVA

Utö Fortress sinks Soviet destroyer

Central Isthmus: at Summa, the Soviet artillery continues its bombardment of the main Finnish positions with increasing ferocity. Enemy tank and infantry attacks are successfully repulsed.
Ladoga Karelia: Soviet troops launch an offensive on the northern flank of the River Kollaanjoki line.
In the Tolvajärvi sector, Detachment Pajari reaches Ristisalmi.
Turku Archipelago: Utö Fortress sinks a Soviet destroyer.
Northern Finland: the Soviet 273rd Infantry Regiment crosses the River Kemijoki at Savukoski. The Finns fall back past Savukoski to the crossroads at Lunkkaus without engaging the enemy.
The League of Nations expels the Soviet Union and urges its members to give Finland all possible humanitarian and material assistance.
Swedish border: the first foreign volunteers cross the border at Haaparanta and arrive at the reception centre in Tornio.
Stockholm: Frans Emil Sillanpää receives the Nobel Prize for Literature.
New York: the film star Greta Garbo gives 5,000 dollars to the Finnish aid fund.

Here's some additional information from the National Archives (UK)

War Cabinet 114 (39).

CONCLUSIONS of a meeting of the War Cabinet held at 10 Downing Street, S.W. 1, on Thursday, December 14, 1939, at 10 A.M.

Present:

Neveille Chamberlain, M.P., Prime Minister
Sir John Simon, M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer
Viscount Halifax, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield, Minister for Co-ordination of Defense
Winston S. Churchill, M.P., First Lord of the Admiralty
L. Hore-Belisha, M.P., Secretary of State for War
Sir Kingsley Wood, M.P., Secretary of State for Air
Sir Samuel Hoare, M.P., Lord Privy Seal
Lord Hankey, Minister without Portfolio
Sir John Anderson, M.P., Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister of Home Security
Anthony Eden, M.P., Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
W.S. Morrison, M.P., Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister of Food
John Colville, M.P., Secretary of State for Scotland
Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, M.P., Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
Sir Horace J. Wilson, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury
Sir Frederick Leith-Ross, Director-General, Ministry of Economic Warfare
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff
General Sir W. Edmund Ironside, Chief of the Imperial General Staff
Air Marshal R.E.C. Peirse, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff

The First Lord of the Admiralty (Churchill)* said that a naval action had taken place on the previous day between three British cruisers and the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee (six 11-inch, eight 9-inch guns). It now turned out that it wasa this vessel, and not the Admiral Scheer as had been thought, which had been in the South Atlantic. The British force was under the command of Commodore Harwood and consisted of Achilles (eight 6-inch guns), Ajax (eight 6-inch guns) and Exter (six 8-inch guns). The German ship had concentrated her fire on H.M.S. Exter. All H.M.S. Exter's guns except one had been put out of action, her speed reduced to 18 knots, and she had been forced to fall out of the action. H.M.S. Ajax had had two of her four turrets put out of action. The two 6-inch cruisers had only broken off the action when they were running very short of ammunition. They had then kept in touch with the Graf Spee, which had run for the River Plate and had entered neutral territorial waters during the nights. She was now at anchor off Montevideo with our two cruisers watching the entrance of the river.

The First Lord of the Admiralty contrasted the offensive spirit shown by Commodore Harwood with the lack of enterprise shown in somewhat similar circumstances at the beginning of the last was when the Geoben was allowed to escape.

*parenthesis mine