RUSSIA READY

Grey River Argus, 17 March 1942, Page 5

RUSSIA READY

' TO FIGHT JAPAN

Very Large Far East f * Forces

NO RISK OF SURPRISE

ATTACK.

[Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.) (Rec. 11.50.) LONDON, March 16. The “Daily Mail’s’’ Stockholm correspondent says: “Russia is perfecting her Far Eastern defences, some details of which are being allowed to leak out so as to coincide with the arrival of the new Japanese Ambassador, Mr Sato. Ambassador ;Tatekawa’s replacement is interpreted as indicating a swiftly-changing Tokio policy towards Moscow. Tne Krem.in is taking no chances. Mr Sato is “doing a kuruso” on Russia. Russia is taking no risk of a repetition of Pearl Harbour. Battle orders, which are instantly operatable, have been issued in Vladivostock, and also the Nikolaevsk naval base, opposite Sakhalin Island. The coast between Vladivostock and Nikolaevsk is mined. Police are rounding up a widespread espionage ring in the Far East Anti-aircraft defences have been strengthened, and aerodromes and fighter squadrons have been multiplied. Frequent reconnaissances are being made over the Gulf of Tartary. These have revealed hundreds of Japanese fishermen within the Russian territorial waters. “The political situation as between Russia and Japan is causing the Kremlin some concern, betause it is realised that it resembles the situation between the Russians and Germany before Germany invaded Russia. “The Swedish press, at the weekend, stated that the Japanese Army in Manchukuo had been raised to more than one million men, which is treble the total there in 1940. Russian authorities in Stockholm laugh at the suggestion that even one million men would constitute a serious menace to the independent Far Eastern Russian , Army, which, normally, totals one and a-half millions. Military quarters believe that Russian forces there are now nearer three million front-line troops, with huge reserves being trained. No troops or aircraft have been transferred from the East. The Command-er-in-Chief at Kharbarovsk is General Gregory Stern. The whole Russian Army is manning the RussianManchukiioan frontier. It is stronger and better equipped than' in the days of its creator, Marshal Blucher, who is reported to be at present training a Central. Asiatic Army. “M. Stalin has ordered the formation of a huge Far Eastern force, comparable to the Russian armies that are facing Germany. Manpower is being drawn from great new industrial towns eastward of the Urals. Far Eastern munitions are independent of the west front. Thousands of Russians are labouring night and day in trebling the Trans-Siberian railway track to carry war materials to the Far East, and this line parallels the Amur River, frontier. The Russians are concentrating on. a second trans-Siberian railway, running northwards from Amur to Konsomolsk on the Amur. “Southwards of Nikolaevsk, fleets of fast flat-bottomed motor-torpedo boats are making their appearance in shallow islands studding Amur. The construction of a chain of aerodromes linking the Kamchatka Peninsula with Alaska, via the Aleutian Islands, is proceeding rapidly. The Russians expect early delivery of American ’planes via this route. Another source of Japanese anxiety is a Russian improvement in communications between war industries eastwards of the Urals and Urumchi, in Sinkiang, also Lanchoo and Chungking, which, possibly, would be valuable supplementing routes for the transport of supplies to China.”

Drive in China

BY THE JAPANESE

CHUNGKING. March 15. The “Central News” says that 2000 Japanese succeeded in penetrating the Hsiang-Chekiang Province. 28 miles south-east of Ning-po, after a severe battle, but fighting is still going on. Hsiangshan is important to the Japanese fox’ safeguarding the supply lines to the south-west Pacific.