SOVIET BASES NEAR JAPAN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26944, 21 January 1953, Page 7

SOVIET BASES NEAR JAPAN

“Tense, Explosive Situation”

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) TOKYO, January 20. Major-General Delmar Spivey, the departing commander of the Japan air defence force, said today there were dozens of Soviet air bases immediately north and north-east of Japan, and he described the situation as tense and explosive. General JSpivey said: “I think everything in the F<fr East is explosive. We are fighting a hot war against the Communists and Japan is the base that supports that war. The situation is always tense.” He said the Russians had 12 to 15 aerodromes in southern Sakhalien alone. The nearest Russian island in the Kurile group was only five and a half miles from north-eastern Hokkaido.

General Spivey said Soviet planes from time to time came over Hokkaido and such violations had been increasing. The Soviet planes were engaged in training, gunnery and bombing near Japanese territory. He said the Russians had an excellent radar system on Sakhalien and the southern Kuriles—as good as the United States system if not* better. “If we fly into northern Hokkaido their planes g o on the alert and take to the air. In other words, we are watching them and they are watching us.”