RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18460, 25 July 1923, Page 9

RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

COMING TO TERMS. ; CESSION OF SAKHALIN. .-'"„.£ : .:■. . [\ I VANCOUVER, July 11. According to advices from Honolulu, M. Joffe, the Russian Soviet envoy at Tokio, has tentatively agreed on behalf of his Government to give Japan the former Russian rights to the northern part of the island of Sakhalin. . . ' > This large island, 570 miles long, which lies off the coast of Siberia, was officially Russian until September, 1905, {■.: when tinder the Treaty of Portsmouth, at .the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese war, the southern half was ceded to Japan. It is rich in fur bearing animals, : and also • in lignitic 'coal, but cereals are little cultivated. ■ ■i : '--- : >r':■;.:'■ '.■}■]/ : } : ''' , : ' ' ' M. Joffe is confident that a formal rev cognition of the Russian Soviet Government is rapidly approaching, according to a cablegram received in Honolulu on Tuesday .from Tokio by a local Japanese newspaper. This message declares that Japan -has now accepted the official regrets of the Soviet Government for toe massacre at Nikolaievsk in 1920. which involved the death ; of over 700. Japanese at the hands of a Russian mob. Demands for damages have, it is said, been waived.