MORE FIGHTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 302, 21 December 1935, Page 9

MORE FIGHTING.

JAPS. AND RUSSIANS. Reports of Border Conflict Vary. SOVIET AGGRESSION EXPECTED United • Pr«ss Association, —Copyright (Received 1 p.m.) TOKYO, December 20. After two months of tranquillity, the Russo-Manchukuo frontier trouble has broken out at Buirnor, where 70 Outer Mongolian troops were driven off, losing 20 rifles, by the Japanese border patrol.

According to Moscow reports, the fighting occurred in Mongolian territory, but Japanese newspapermen at Hsinking declare otherwise.

The affair attracts attention owing to the recent marked revival in Japanese Army circles and in the Foreign Office of the belief that Russia is harbouring aggressive designs and making warlike preparations which are expected to materialise on the completion of her second Five-Year Plan. These alarmin" anticipations, however, coincide with unprecedentedly large Japanese Army Estimates.

A Moscow report of the encounter states that troops armed with machineguns surrounded an outpost and killed a Mongolian officer and two soldiers.

WAR PREPARATIONS. Secret, Well-Equipped Annies In Mongolia. TANKS, GUNS, BATTERIES. (Received 2 p.m.) LONDON, December 20. The "Daily Telegraph" Peking correspondent says Prince Enturga, a Mongol fugitive from Outer Mongolia, declares that the whole country is on a war basis and vividly describes a "Foreign Legion," estimated to number 10,000, which, he says, is drilling near Urga under Russian officers. It includes other Europeans,- among whom are Germans. The units comprise many large and small tanks, armoured cars, field batteries, mountain gunsji infantry, camel corps and Mongol cavalry. The legion's camp is encircled with barbed wire, and entrance is forbidden under pain of death. Similar armies, he says, are established near Buiraor and at other centres, all under the control of Urga, which is in wireless communication with Moscow. Also 200 'planes, including large bombers, are at Ur ; ja, where a recent demonstration of infantrymen parachuted in readiness for a raid. Meanwhile, the Japanese base at Dolonor is assuming formidable military preparations. An aerodrome is being prepared.