CONFLICT EXPECTED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 10 January 1936, Page 3

CONFLICT EXPECTED

JAPAN AND RUSSIA NEITHER SIDE READY YET LONDON, Ist Januaty. The real significance of some of the recent incidents on the ManchukuoMongolian frontier at present is obscure, but one such incident is expected by some observers to start the RussoJapanese war, which they regard as eventually inescapable. At present, however, Japan not only has not, so these observers say, console dated her position in Manchukuo — where banditry, if anything, has be come worse—but she does not possess strategic railways. Furthermore, the annexation of large slices of North China would be a much easier proposition. Japan often acts when the Western world lias other things to think about, and therefore it would not be surprising, say these observers, if her representatives in Ulan Bator, formerly Urga, (he capital of Mongolia, ignored the Mongolian Foreign Minister’s protest following the recent border clashes. The latest reports from Mongolia, it is said, suggest that the Japanese will provoke war against the Mongolians before the commencement of the spring sowing. Russia keep#* her Eastern army oil a permanent war footing, hut would, be placed at a disadvantage by a Japanese attack through Mongolia, because the Russo-Mongolian frontier is practically unfortified. Their plans are believed to include The seizing of the railway, thereby menacing the new 500-mile motor road between Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. Penetration through Mongolia would enable the Japanese to cut the transSiberian railway at Lake Balikal, and take control of the northern rail route ■to Vladivostok. In addition, a Japanese army based 04 Mongolia, would be in a position to deliver a thrust against the Soviet areas in central and southern China.