A CONFLICT EXPECTED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 79, 15 January 1936, Page 6

A CONFLICT EXPECTED

JAPAN AND RUSSIA, NEITHER, SIDE READY YET. LONDON, January 1. The real significance of some of the recent incidents on the ManchukuoMongolian frontier at present is obscure but one such incident is expected by some observers to start the RussoJapanese war, which they regard as eventually inescapable.

At present, however, Japan not only has not, so these observers say, consolidated ft*r position in Manchukuo — where banditry, if anything, has become worse—but she does not possess strategic railways. Furthermore, the annexation of large slices of North China would be a much easier proposition.

Japan often acts when the Western world has other things to think about, and therefore it would not be surprising, says these observers, if her representatives in Ulan Bater, formerly Ilrga, the capital of Mongolia, ignored the Mongolian Foreign Minister's protest following the recent border clash. The latest reports from Mongolia, it is said, suggest that the Japanese will provoke war against the Mongolians before the commencement of the spring sowing.

Russia keeps her Eastern army on a permanent war footing, but would be placed at a disadvantage by a Japanese attack through Mongolia, because the Russo-Mongoliau frontier is practically unfortified. Their plans are believed to include the seizing of the railway, thereby menacing tho new 500-mile motor road between Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. Penetration through Mongolia- would enable the Japanese to cut the transSiberian railway at Lake Balikal, and take control of the northern rail route to Vladivostok.

In addition, a Japanese army based on Mongolia would be in a position to deliver a thrust against the Soviet areas in central and southern China,