UNFRIENDLY ACT.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 288, 5 December 1929, Page 7

UNFRIENDLY ACT.

APPEAL TO SOVIET. Reply To Powers Repudiates Peace Pact. SURPRISE IN AMERICA. (Uniml P.A.-Electric Telegraph-Copyright) (Received 9.55 a.m.) MOSCOW, December 4. The Soviet Government's reply to ; the United States Note on Manchuria was handed to M. Harbette, the Trench Ambassador, by Litvinoff, the assistant Foreign Commissar. The reply points out that the United States has" appealed to the Soviet when Russia wa3 directly negotiating with Mukden. Such action was not a justifiable pressure on these negotiations, and so could not be regarded as a friendly act. The Russo-Chinese dispute must be settled by direct negotiations, with which interference is not permissible The Soviet is amazed that the United States, which by its own desire has had no official relations with Russia, should offer advice and counsel. The reply says the Soviet, unlike other Powe-s has never resorted to military action for defence, but has pur?ued_ a policy of peace from the first day of its existence, which it intends to continue, independently of the Paris Pact. The Nanking Government during recent years has carried on a provocative policy, culminating in the seizure of the Eastern Railway. The Soviet believes that similar action toward the United States, Britain or France, would be considered a sufficient cause for putting into operation their reservations made when signing the pact renouncing war. The Soviet Government then declared that it did not recognise those reservations, and did not intend to use them. Position Complicated. A message from Washington states that while considerable surprise is expressed by the State Department at Moscow's reply to Mr. Stimson's Note regarding the Russian-Chinese relations, the answers from the other Kellogg Pact signatories to Mr. Stimson's request that they co-operate have rather complicated than clarified the situation.

A summary of the latest responses is as follows: —Mexico agreed to address Nanking and Moscow along lines similar to the American communication: Holland undertook to communicate with China but not with the Soviet, with which she has no diplomatic relations; Cuba promised to co-operate. It is now considered that Mr. Stiinson is likely to reply to Moscow later. MUTINOUS TROOPS. Bloodthirsty Attacks On Loyalists. PUKOW RISING. (Received 11 a.m.) SHANGHAI, December 4. Further reports from foreigners arriving here from Nanking regarding the Pukow mutiny show that all the administrative buildinge were looted from top to bottom and every door, window and desk was smashed. Ten new locomotives, two of which were armed, were seized and railway officials were forced to operate them at the revolver point.

Loyal troops were surprised while asleep in their billets. Many who offered resistance were killed and their bodies thrown on thue roadside. Others were disarmed. A punitive expedition has been dispatched to Pukow from Nanking and is now in pursuit of the retreating rebels. SHANGHAI COUNCIL. South African Judge As Adviser. MUNICIPAL REFORM. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.) RUGBY, December 4. Mr. Gillett, Parliamentary Undersecretary for Foreign Affair's, stated that the Consul-General at Shanghai reported that Mr. Justice Feetham, of South Africa, had been asked whether, in the event of the Municipal Council inviting him to act as their adviser for the purpose of examining the problem of municipal reform in the international settlement in the light of Chinese aspirations, he would accept. Mr. Gillett said he gathered from the Press that the invitation had been accepted. The Shanghai Municipal Council took this action without first consulting His Majesty's Government. They explained to the Consul-General that thev were anxious not to embarrass the British Government and that for this reason the Government were not being asked to accept any responsibility in the matter.

BRITAIN'S NOTE. NO REPLY RECEIVED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.) RUGBY, December 4. It was stated in the House of Commons to-day that no reply had, up to the present, been received, from either the Soviet or the Chinese Governments to the British memorandum calling their attention to the terms of the Pact of Paris and its application to the situation in Manchuria.

AMERICAN DENIAL. NO UNFRIENDLY MOTIVE. (Received 11 a.m.) WASHINGTON, December 4. Taking notice of the Russian memorandum to the United States as reported in the Press, the Secretary of State, Mr. H. L. Stimson, said on Wednesday that the message the American Government sent to China and Russia was "not from unfriendly motives but because this Government regards the Pact of Paris as a covenant, which has profoundly modified the attitude of. tie world towards peace."