WHEN WILL IT BEGIN?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 121, 24 May 1932, Page 7

WHEN WILL IT BEGIN?

RUSSO-JAPANESE CONFLICT. LONDON. May 20. When -will the Russo-Japanese war begin? is a question that is asked everywhere in the Far East, says the special correspondent of the "Scotsman." Russians in Harbin and the vicinity have been secrctly ordered to return to Russia, and 2000 have left within ten clays. The Soviet troops on the frontier now number 150,000. The Russians, the correspondent states, are craftily withdrawing rollingstock from the Chinese Eastern Railways, with a view to hampering the Japanese, who recently arrested 30 Russian terrorists who had been sent to Harbin to dynamite bridges, railway stations and factories. The Russians have mobilised 12,000 students at Vladivostoek to fortify the border. It is believed that Japan's first move will be a naval attack on Vladivostock and an attempt to seize the Russian maritime province. If this is successful it will be a disaster of the first magnitude for the Soviet. In an article in "Isvestia," the Soviet organ, Carl Radek, head of propaganda, again appeals to Japan to conclude a treaty of non-aggression with Russia. He complains that Japanese forces are approaching the Soviet frontiers and are disregarding Soviet economic interests in the Chinese Eastern Railway, which White Guard adventurers, under Japanese protection, are permanently injuring. The conclusion of a non-aggrcssion pact, ho says, would facilitate a peaceful settlement of these questions.