WAR TALK

Southland Times, Issue 22009, 8 May 1933, Page 7

WAR TALK

RUSSIA AND JAPAN SUGGESTIONS DISCRED- / ITED JAPAN’S INTENTIONS (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, May 5. “The talk of the imminence of war in the Far East finds no echo in Japan,” says Mr G. Ward Price, cabling to the Daily Mail from Tokio. “A Russo-Japanese clash some day is more than likely, but nobody believes that it will come as a result of the present dispute. The most thorough inquiries in the highest naval and military quarters reveal that Japan has no intention of going to war with Russia, nor is there fear that Russia will at present force war. If Russia had wanted to fight she should have done so last year, when the Japanese occupied Tsitsihar. She yielded then, and she is not expected to be bolder now. The Japanese Government’s attitude is that the railway dispute is a local matter between Manchukuo and the Soviet.” Commander Scouts Idea. Interviewed at Darein, Marshal Muto, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief in Manchuria scouted the idea of war with Russia. He said. that Japans hands were full with agricultural, industrial and transport improvements, “but if Russia takes the wrong direction or anyone ’interferes with the creation of this important base for peace in Asia, we are prepared to defend our rights,” he added.