RUSSIA AND INDIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 May 1935, Page 3

RUSSIA AND INDIA

POSITION IN CHINESE PROVINCE MOSCOW, April 12. Hsinkiang, Chinese Turkestan, though still nominally under Chinese I Sovereignty, has become virtually a Russian protectorate, said Doctor Sven Hedin, the veteran Swedish ex--1 plorer, who has just arrived here. * This changes radically the conditions in Central Asia, as Russia now becomes a neighbour to the Indian Empire. Dr. Sven Hedin pointed out that since disturbed conditions have prevented Chinese caravans from crossing the Gobi Desert. Hsinkiang has become a purely Russian zone of economic influence. The Soviets have cornered its entire trade, without having to incur the great expense and political risk of direct intervention in the administration of the province. The Nanking Government, not relishing this state of affairs, and wishing lor closer relations with the semiindependent Chinese Governor in Urumchi, invited Dr. Sven Hedin to map out roads across the Southwest corner of the Gobi Desert. This would reduce the time .taken to reach Hsinkiang from three months by camel to two weeks by car. Such roads could easily be built across the hard, tightly-packed sand of the Gobi Desert.

Dr. Sven Hedin has now recommended‘the construction of certain roads, which would mean -the re-opening for of the world’s most famous caravan route—the ancient “silkroad” to Samarkand, whence Chinese silks and other rare goods passed on to Rome and Western Europe.