NEW MOVE BY SOVIET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19608, 9 April 1927, Page 11

NEW MOVE BY SOVIET.

THE MASSING OF TROOPS. INTERPRETATION OF ACTION. FEAR • OF WAR DEPRECATED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copy right. (Recoived April 8, 5.5 p.m.). Sun. LONDON. April 7. Despatches received in Lcndoa from Soviet sources report the massing of at least three Russian battalions on the borders of Manchuria and Mongolia. The move is believed to be connected with strained relations between China and the Soviet. Official circles, however, deprecate alarmist interpretations being placed on the news, and they particularly deprecate the idea that it may portend a ChinoSoviet war. It is pointed out that Russia is unlikely to forget that a declaration of war would only recoil on herself, because it would frustrate the Soviet's present methods of conducting its world-wide Communist campaign. For example, Britain would be able to intern or deport every Russian intriguer and agitator, and presumably every British Dominion would take similar action. Well-informed sources regard the presence of Russian troops rather as a threat with a view to preventing Marshal Chang Tso-lin from proceeding further south against the Southern armies. A message from Copenhagen says the Soviet is despatching General Lebeder to command the troops on the Manchurian frontier. The Trans-siberian railway is choked with war supplies.