RUSSIA AND JAPAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 March 1942, Page 5

RUSSIA AND JAPAN

LARGE FAR EAST ARMY WAR PROSPECTS REVIEWED LONDON. March 16. Russia is perfecting her Far Eastern defences, some details of wnicii are being allowed to leak out to coincide with the arrival of the new Japanese Ambassador (Mr. Sato), says the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Mail.” The replacement of Lieutenant-General Tatekawa is interpreted as indicating a swiftly changing policy in Tokio towards Moscow. The Kremlin is taking no chances of Mr. Sato “doing a Kurusu on Russia. . . , . „„„ ■Russia is taking no risk of a repetition of Pearl Harbour. Battle orders which can be instantly put into

operation have been issued at Vladivostok and also at the Nikolaevsk naval base opposite Sakhalin Island. The coast between Vladivostok and Nikolaevsk has been mined, and the police are rounding up a widespi cad espionage ring in the Far East. Antiaircraft defences have been strengthened and aerodromes and lighter squadrons multiplied.. Frequent reconnaissances are being made ovei the Gulf of Tartary. These have revealed that hundreds ol Japanese fishermen are within Russian territorial waters. The political situation between Russia and Japan is causing the Kremlin some concern, because it is realised that it resembles the situation between Russia anil Germany before Germany invaded RusSl£ The Swedish Press at the weekend stated that the Japanese army in Manchukuo had been raised to more than. 1,000,000 men, which is three times the total in 1940. Russian authorities in Stockholm laugh at the suggestion that even 1,000,000 men would constitute a serious menace to the independent Far Eastern Russian Army, which normally totals 1,500,000. Military quarters believe that the forces are now nearer 3,000,000 frontline troops, with huge reserves being trained. No troops or aircraft have been transferred from the east. The commander-in-chief is General Gregory Stern. The whole aimy manning the Russian-Manchukuoan frontier is stronger and better equipped than in the days of its creator Marshal Blucher, who is reported at present to be training a Central Asiatic army. M. Stalin has ordered the formation of a huge Far Eastern force comparable with the armies facing Germany. Manpower and munitions are being drawn * ion ) great new industrial towns east oi the Urals and independent of the west front. Thousands ol Russians are labouring night and day trebling the trans-Siberian railway track to carry war materials to the far Bas v , and this line runs parallel with the Amur River frontier. The Russians are concentrating on a second transSiberian railway running north oi Amur to Konsomolsk on the Amur River south to Nikolaevsk. The construction of a chain oi aerodromes linking the Kamchatka Peninsula with Alaska by wav oi the Aleutians is proceeding rapidly, and the Russians expect the early delivery of American aeroplanes by this route. „ , r Another source ol Japanese anxiety is the Russian improvement of communications between war industries east of the Urals and Urumchi in Sinkiang, also Lanchoo and Chungking, which would possibly be valuable supplementing routes for transporting supplies to China.