THE SOVIET AND CHINA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19061, 4 July 1925, Page 10

THE SOVIET AND CHINA.

The Earl of. Birkenhead's statement as to Russia's responsibility for the menacing outbreak in China was ho downright that it was bound to evoke comment by the. Soviet. It has come. Russia's Minister for Foreign Affairs has made violent answer. His assertion that the outbreak is really due to Chinese irritation under political and economic oppression by the Great Powers, and that the only solution of the present unhappy situation is a new, cehtralised democracy freed from foreign domination, will be given short shrift by those who know the East. The day for the withdrawal of Western surveillance, in China's own interests, has not yet dawned, and to Bpeak of that surveillance as oppression is to misrepresent facts. The aßßertion is an attempt to cloud the issue. Plainly put, the position is that there has been a murderous outburst 'in China imperilling the nationals of Western peoples and that this is traceable to Russia's incitement. The Soviet disavowal of complicity must be taken with more than a grain of sai't, especially in view ol the Foreign Minister's unsavoury reputation in international circles. The name of Tchitcherin has been continuously associated with intrigue. He unscrupulously strove to bring the Lausanne Conference to naught, pouring sand into the diplomatic wheels at every opportunity. But for him, Turkish truculence would have been overcome and a vexing problem in eastern Europe been brought nearer solution. What the Soviet then openly aimed to achieve through him in the Near East may well be duplicated torday in the Far East; at all events, hiß protests as Foreign Minister, when his character and career are remembered, cannot carry conviction. On his part, the Earl of Birkenhead, as. Secretary of State for India, has inherited a task made difficult long ago by Russian plots on the north-western frontier of the dependency; and it is hard to think that what Russia once persistently attempted in India is not now being tried in China. But the present trouble leaves little room for conjecture. The evidence of Soviet interference, is too strong to be set aside by mere disclaimer. Mr. Austen Chamberlain, in his capacity as Britain's Foreign Minister, has identified his Government with the Earl of Birkenhead's charge, and given assurance that Russia's mischief-making influence in China will be closely watched and countered. It is high time that the underground • intrigues of the Soviet were dragged into the daylight, and it is well that Britain has in power a Government prepared to do this without fear or hesitation.