THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1936. RUSSIA AND JAPAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22779, 15 January 1936, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1936. RUSSIA AND JAPAN

Friction between Russia and Japan in the Far East serves periodically as a basis for predictions of grave developments. The tension between the two along the Soviet-Manchukuo border has been considerable during the past year, and in October there was a clash which appeai’ed to be more serious than any of a succession of previous “incidents.” Last month there was more frontier trouble. According to the Soviet official account the affair took shape in a Japanese raid. The Japanese Foreign Office was then reported as declaring that Russia was harbouring aggressive designs, and making warlike preparations which would materialise on the completion of the second Five-year Plan. The whole of Outer Mongolia was described by the Daily Telegraph’s Peking correspondent, on the authority of a fugitive prince, as being on a war basis. The most recent cable messages have included an account, coming by way of Riga, of Soviet fortifications extending from Lake Baikal to Vladivostock. A London journal offers gloomy predictions of trouble. The important consideration, no doubt, is whether behind such tales of gathering clouds there is more ground for serious apprehension than previously. Neither Russia nor Japan wants war, declared the editor of Contemporary Japan some months ago, but he added “both sides believe it is inevitable.” For the destruction of such a belief it will not be helpful that army rule prevails at Tokio. At least Russia is now a member of the League of Nations, which Japan now is not. That Russia is apprehensive of both Germany and Japan is fairly evident. In Europe Germany is bent on expansion, with “ colonisation of the Ukraine.” In the Far East Japan has a similar objective, and it is against that attitude on her part that the Soviet considers it requires security. Outwardly the policy of Russia in the Far East is to maintain peace, to preserve the integrity of China and the open door, and to prevent Japan from becoming too powerful and aggressive. An important factor in the direction of the maintenance of stability in the Par East is the increasing power of Russia in her Amur and maritime provinces. Here a self-supporting defensive area has been set up independent of the long line of communications with Moscow, the efficiency of which has been increased by the construction of a double line on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the building of a further strategical railway from Lake Baikal to a new port on the Sea of Okhotsk.

In any .case, it has been suggested, a weak Russia is a danger to peace in the Far East, while a Russia strong enough to balance the power of Japan falls in with the peaceful aims of British policy. The reactions of Soviet Russia to the policy of Japan in Manchuria, and as more recently revealed in relation to the provinces of North China, may be regarded as a factor of some moment, in the situation. Six months ago the Soviet Ambassador at Tokio entered a vigorous protest, enumerating a long series of what were claimed to be violations of Soviet territory by Japanese-Manchukuoan armed forces. About the same time Japan was protesting against violations of the agreement under which Russia was not to encourage Communist propaganda in the Far East. Rivalry as between Russian and Japanese interests in Mongolia has doubtless its effect upon the relations of the two countries. While the people of Inner Mongolia continue under the governance of their hereditary princes, and nearly half of the entire Mongol people live within the borders of Manehukuo, Outer Mongolia is completely Sovietised. In the past eleven years it has been penetrated through and through, we read, with Soviet ideology and material development. Apparently all nationalist movements in Mongolia arc preceded by civil war to decide which faction shall impose its will upon the rest, and it has been pointed out that if civil war did occur the position of Russia and Japan as patrons of either party would be most delicate. In more than one direction the advance of Russian influence in Central Asia has been considerable, and Japan sees in it evidence of an aggressive spirit and an obstacle to her own expansionist policy.