AFRAID OF SOVIET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18207, 30 September 1933, Page 5

AFRAID OF SOVIET

JAPANESE STATEMENT MORE DEFENCES NEEDED TOKIO, Sept. 28. Tile W'iir Office lias issued a statement confirming a recent cable message that Japan does not intend to re-create lour army divisions, which is a groundless fabrication, but points out that the Soviet army is at present stronger than under the Tsarist regime. Warlike preparations in the Far Fast are formidable. Ten divisions, 30(J tanks, and 100 aeroplanes and bombers capable of immediate attack oil Manchukuo and Japan, arc causing uneasiness, and an improvement in the national defences is urgent.

JAPAN’S AIMS GRASPING AT ASIA LONDON, Sept. lb. Extension of the Japanese sphere o' interest to Inner Mongolia, Mortli China, and the maritime province of Russia, is almost certain, declares the special correspondent of the Times in Manchuria.

The life of heavy Russian military concentrations on the Amur frontier hangs by the single thread of the transSiberian railway. There are ultimately only two factors to check Japan’s ambitions in Asia —the state of her finances and tho quality of tho Red Army. The Manchukuo State set- up by Japan, must be regarded as a fait accompli, continues the correspondent. The rights and wrongs of Japan s actions in 1931, are no longer relevant either to the present or the future of the Far East. The country is undergoing what is best described as “enlightened exploitation,” from which 30,000,000 inhabitants will benetit. Banditry is the chief obstacle to peace and prosperity. It is estimated that there were 212,000 bandits last year. Tho number is now officially stated to bo 60,000, but these are only wholetimers. There are probably another 120,000 part-time bandits. The Government is spending 48 times more upon suppression of banditry than upon education. Nevertheless, financial progress is rapid. Currency stabilisation alone is an inestimable blessing in a country formerly flooded with war-lords’ worthless .paper. Foreign opinion is favorable to the Japanese, but justifiably anxious about the commercial future of the “open door.” Manchuria is not quite as wide open as formerly. Extension of Stato monopolies w dll accelerate the almost inevitable doom of foreign commercial interests.

Lord Lytton, who headed the League of Nations Commission, which reported against Japan's action in Manchuria, protests against the correspondent’s reference to a fait accompli. The. League Assembly, he .says, unanimously condemned, Japan’s action. If the doctrine of irrelevancy were accepted, it would destroy the foundations of peace.