RUSSO-JAPANESE CONFLICT

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 23 May 1932, Page 5

RUSSO-JAPANESE CONFLICT

Clash Deemed Inevitable TROOPS IN MANCHURIA Soviet Closing Frontiers MASSING OF AHMED FORCES PREPARATIONS FOR ATTACK. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph Copy right.) Received 10.50 a.m. to-day. LONDON, May 22. The “Sunday Pictorial” says that military circles in London and on the ■Continent believo that nothing can prevent an eventual collision between Russian and Japanese troops. “Russia has closed her frontiers, both on the north-west and on . the north-east entrances to Manchuria,” says the paper. “Trains passing through from Russia on the 'Chinese Eastern Railway have drawn, blinds and are closely guarded. Vladivostock i 3 closed to foreigners and much military equipment is being . collected there. The Japanese have actively prepared to defeat an imminent attack by General Machusan’s army of 50,000, which it is claimed is assisted by the Soviet.’ ’

TRANSPORT CATCHES FIRE;

■BLAZE AT SHANGHAI. SHANGHAI, May 22. The Japanese army transport vessel Bombay Maru caught fire in the harbour this morning a few hours before troops were to be embarked on Teturn to Japan. The vessel carried 100 tons of gasolene and the fire spread rapidly, threatening the wharves and other ships and necessitating the cutting of the hawsers. The flaming Bombay Maru was taken through the harbour anil beached on the river bank, where it is still burning.