CHINA AND SOVIET

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXII, Issue 2820, 3 March 1932, Page 6

CHINA AND SOVIET

ALLIANCE AGAINST JAPAN. SERIOUS DEVELOPMENT IN THE EAST. Australian Press Assn. —United Servict SHANGHAI, Tuesday. The startling decision is announced at Nanking that China has decided to resume full relations with the Soviet. These were severed at the time of the SinoRaissian fighting over the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1929. The Chinese Foreign Oflicc officially announces a punitive expedition against the newly-created independent State of Manchuria, together with the resumption of relations with the Soviet. Those reports arc regarded as highly significant following a Japanese report from Vladivostok stating that approximately 100,000 Russian troops are concentrated in the Ussuri district, and that additional troops, munitions and foodstuffs arc being transported daily eastward to forts under construction at Amur.

The Soviet at present is making inquiries in Manchuria regarding the assistance of White Russians, also as to the character of the new Manchurian jStatc. A Nanking official says: "As the world has failed to support China against the Japanese aggression, the c-nly course is to join hands with Russia.” A message from Tokio states that today there was a declaration of the founding of a new State of Manchuria, of which the inaugural ceremony will be held at Changchun, the capital, next Saturday. This will include the investiture as chief executive of the former Mancha Emperor, Hsuan Tung, -whom the Chinese deposed. The South Manchurian Railway Company lias signed a contract with the new Government for the construction of Government buildings at Changchun at a cost of £2,000,000. A message from London yesterday stated that the Harbin correspondent of the Daily Express reported that the I*od Army has turned the Soviet border ihto a semi-circle of fortified camps, recalling the Flanders front in the Great War. Trucks with aeroplanes, and war material have been transported quietly in the direction of Vladivostok, where the island in the harbour is being fortified.