ON A WAR BASIS

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1935, Page 7

ON A WAR BASIS

POSITION IN MONGOLIA ■ “■ . RUSSIA’S ARMED LEGION WARLIKE PREPARATIONS CLASH WITH JAPANESE '■ ■ ' ■' ’'''.-OP* FIGHTING ALONG BORDER By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 5.5 p.m. London, Dec. 21. Prince Enturga, a Mongol fugitive from Outer Mongolia, declares that the whole country is on a war basis, says the Peking correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. He vividly describes a foreign 'legion, estimated to number. 10,000, drilling near Urga under Russian officers. It includes other Europeans, among them being Germans. The units comprise many large and small tanks, armoured cans, field batteries, mountain guns, infantry, camel corps and Mongol cavalry. The legion’s camp is encircled by barbed wire and entrance is forbidden under pain of death. There is a similar army near Buimor and other centres under* the control of ■Utrga which is in wireless communication with Moscow. e There are also 200 ‘—' planes including large bombers at Urga where there was a recent demonstration or infantry parachuting in readiness for, .' a raid. ' Meanwhile the Japanese base art Doionor is assuming formidable military preparations. An aerodrome is / being pre- _ •pared, TROUBLE AT BUIRNOR. The Tokio correspondent of the Times says that after two months of tranquillity Russo-Manchukuo frontier trouble has broken out at Buirnor, where 70 Outer Mongolian troops were driven off, losing 20 rifles, by a Japanese Manchukuo border patrol. According to Moscow reports the fighting occurred in Mongolian territory, but Japanese newspapermen at Hsinking declare otherwise. The affair attracts attention owing to the recent marked revival of activity in Japanese army circles and Foreign Office assertions that Russia is harbouring aggressive designs and making warlike preparations which will materialise with the completion of the second Five-Year Plan. The alarming anticipations coincide with unprecedently large army estimates. The Moscow report of the encounter i states that troops armed with machineguns surrounded an outpost and killed ; a Mongolian officer and two soldiers. A Soviet official report from Khabarovsk states that the Japanese raid on Mongolia was the result of advice sent to the Kwantung army by the Japanese military attache abroad who declared the inactivity of the army was construed as weakness and urged bonder raids on' Mongolia even at the risk of war with the Soviet.