RUSSIAN TROOPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23106, 3 August 1938, Page 13

RUSSIAN TROOPS

MOTORISED COLUMN ARRIVAL OF ARTILLERY BOEDER CONCENTRATION SEVERITY OF OPERATIONS . LONDON, August 2 f Officers at the headquarters of the Japanese Army in Kwantung, North China, state that 800 motorised Russian infantry are concentrated at Suetashi, and that artillery is arriving at Karanchin. Official reports indicate the severity of the Changkufeng operations of July 30 and 31, says the Tokio correspondent of the Times. The Russian losses are estimated- at 270, On the other hand it is officially announced in Moscow that the Changkufeng conflict resulted in 400 Japanese casualties and in 13 Russians being killed and 55 wounded. The Soviet is strongly protesting to Tokio. SERIES OF INCIDENTS i FORCES ON FRONTIER » BOTH SIDES TRANSGRESS EACH FEARS THE OTHER ' Frontier incidents have now been flar'ing up between Russia and Japan e\ei since the Japanese marched into Manchukuo, and each began to fear the 'designs of tlio othor in China. Already there have been ho many incidents that an authority on Eastern affairs, Mr. H. Hcssell Tiltman, has stated that war could not have been averted had the conditions existed anywhere but in the Far East. "Tokio and Moscow must have concluded a secret pact not to make war upon each other in any circumstances," he quotes one observer, "othenviso neither side would take the risks they do." On the Kussian side of the frontier there was a force last year of about 300,000 troops, whose equipment iueluded at least 1000 aeroplanes and 400 tanks, and with about 75,000 allies in the

shape of tho Bed Outer Mongolian Army, mostly mounted and including nierchanised corps, tanks, an aviation corps of about 200 machines piloted by Soviet citizens, and completely mechanised artillery. Japan, which has never been slow to take its share of the frontier pinpricking, Mr. Tiltman says, had an army last year on tho frontier of between 40,000 and 50,000 troops, eked out by about 100,000 Maitchukuoan soldiers, whose reliability in anything more than a brush with banditti is at least doubtful. Mr. Til&nan,. in "Tho Far East Comes Nearer," mentions about 12 incidents involving unauthorised crossing of tho frontier by either Japanese or Russian troops, which occurred in the first three months of 1936. For every one the Bussians and the Japanese had a different version, each absolving itself from all blame and casting it upon the other. Ho says the number of pin-pricks has continued to mount. Manchukuoan patrols appeared to experience the greatest difficulty in keeping on the right side of the frontier, every stick and stone of which is known to the children of tho border territory, and Japanese military airmen, he says, have made forced landings in Soviet territory under circumstances in which no great perspicuity was needed to discern their mission. A Russian newspaper said: "We have to keep a whole army on the Manchurian frontier in order to prevent promenades into Soviet territory by Japanese tourists with machineguns." Japan in turn has blamed Russia for dogmatically assuming that a trespass has been committed and resorting to arms when no clear 'border demarcation exists. Russia has also-been criticised for maintaining excessive armaments near the border. Fear of what the other might intend is at the hack of the unhappy situation. Japan, tho exact antithesis in its official outlook to Russia, fears not only tho encroachment of Soviet influence in China, but also tho proximity of her own densely-populated industrial centres to the Russian aircraft bases on the Pacific. Russia, in turn, has expressed its determination to maintain Outer Mongolia as a Soviet protectorate, for, if Japan went into this territory, a direct threat would immediately hang like Damocles' sword over tho safety of Russia in the East, since the trans-Siberian railway could Ik- fi>t at any time, thus putting an end to whatever promise Russia might have ol penetrating China.