EYES ON MONGOLIA

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1935, Page 13

EYES ON MONGOLIA

RUSSIANS WATCHING JAPANESE. TENSENESS IN RELATIONS. The ever-recurring clashes between the hard-riding Mongol descendants of Genghis'Khan and the sturdy little Japanese troopers of the Manchukuoan Army on the Outer Mongolian-Manchurian border are being watched with the gravzest concern by the foreign officers of Moscow and Tokio (writes the Moscow correspondent of the New York Times). Outer Mongolia occupies a position in the affairs of the Far East—chiefly by virtue of its geographical location—not unlike that of Belgium in the World War. It is a zone of possible but not inevitable Soviet-Japanese conflict. Although the Soviet Union has never attempted to establish a protectorate over Mongolia, the relations between Moscow and Urga (Ulan Bator) have been close foi- many since the country declared herself a republic 11 years ago and set out to establish a democratic form of government. The Mongolians had the consistent advice and help of her interested neighbour, and it is reasonable to predict that apy Japanese effort to establish military or economic control would meet the strongest resistance. On the other hand, Japan—this means the military clique that dominates Manchukuo—has shown an . aggressive attitude towards z Outer Mongolia.' i The dispute which arose early this year over. the arrest of two Japanese officers by Mongolians is still raging, the Manchukuoan-Japanese factions making impossible and even insulting demands. They insisted on installing representatives at three Mongolian cities—Mongolians having a corresponding number in Manchuria—to act as a commission for the judging on the spot of all border disputes. When the Mongolians refused, sensing in the scheme the inauguration of a Manchukuoan spy system, the Japanese delegate threatened that the “Manchu-kuoan-Japanese troops would reach the heart of the Mongolian Peoples Republic by force and solve the problem by violence,” the official Soviet news agency recently reported. The peaceful penetration of Mongolia by the Soviet Union is exemplified by the sending of many engineers and military and political advisers. Modem technique and methods are being introduced. Although the country is largely devoted to cattle raising, mechanised agriculture has been introduced in the north and north-west where irrigation makes this possible. Industrial enterprises have been launched on a small scale for livestock products. These are equipped with Soviet machinery. Soviet doctors are introducing sanitation in the villages and are treating the aches and pains of Mongolian nomads at well-equipped medical stations. Thus helped by their Red neighbours, it is not strange that the Mongolians have made their government in a pattern not unlike that of the Soviet Republics. The former princes have lost their rights and influence; Lamaism has been restricted; a Constitution establishing rule by the people in place of the former feudal theocratic system has been inaugurated; courts have been reorganised to give equal rights to the entire population; trade-producing cooperatives have been instituted along with a vast network of schools,, and an organisation of veterinaries has been formed. In general a tremendous impetus has been given to the development of Mongolian national culture by the Soviet Union. In the first half of 1935 the trade between Mongolia and the Soviet Union occupied the seventh place in Soviet exports, greater than the shipments to Italy, Japan, Belgium, or the Netherlands. In July, 1934, when the Mongolian Republic celebrated its tenth anniversary, a Soviet delegation headed by Lazar M. Karakhan, travelled to Ulan Bator. Showing how closely the Soviet Union watches the Japanese - Manchurian manoeuvres in connection with Outer Mongolia, and how sharply it calls Japan to order, it is possible to quote a recent article in the newspaper Izvestia by Karl Radek, spok ;man for Soviet foreign policy, entitled “Smoke Screen of the Japanese Military.” The article answers the latest pamphlet of the Japanese War Ministry and says the Soviet Government made the greatest sacrifices to prevent the Manchurian complications from becoming war by selling the Chinese Eastern Railway. “The second reason for the tenseness of Japanese-Soviet relations, according to

the authors of the pamphlet, is that the Soviet Union is openly Sovietising Outer Mongolia.” Mr. Radek writes: Mongolia is an independent country, governed by its own laws, and its borders are defended by the Mongolian army. Not one Soviet soldier or detachment is there. “All the talk of the Sovietisation of Outer Mongolia is pure Action, serving as a pretext for preparing for an attack oh that country which is the dream of the Japanese militaristic adventurers. If the heads of the Japanese military have been turned £ly easy victory in China, they must realise that the Soviet Union is not China. The Soviet’s special Far Eastern army exists for that very purpose.”