SOVIET SEA POWER.

Wairarapa Age, 26 May 1936, Page 5

SOVIET SEA POWER.

LIMITATION DEPENDENT ON JAPAN. DISCUSSION WITH BRITAIN. FAB EASTERN ISSUES. MOSCOW, May 24. Karl Radek, the Soviet publicist, in an article in the “Izvestia,” explains that an Anglo-Russian naval agreement will depend on Japan’s willingness to conclude a similar treaty with England and upon the non-inclusion of the Soviet’s Far Eastern fleet in any agreement. Russia is striving to agree with Japan concerning naval limitation, pending which she cannot limit the Far Eastern fleet or supply information about it, owing to Japan’s breach of the Washington Treaty and withdrawal from the London Conference. Russia must rebuild her fleet owing to the failure of the Conference, the steady increase in the naval armaments of other Powers, and the loss of nearly the entire Russian navy in the Great War, necessitating the safeguarding of the Soviet against the growing navies of States which openly proclaim the struggle against Russia. (Informal conversations between representatives of Great Britain and the Soviet Embassy in London for the conclusion of a bilateral agreement to associate the Soviet Union in the execution of the recent Naval Treaty were opened at the Foreign Office last week.)