JAPAN AND RUSSIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18653, 3 June 1932, Page 6

JAPAN AND RUSSIA.

If the present Japanese occupation of Manchuria is, as seems probable, continued indefinitely there is likely to be serious trouble between Japan and Russia. For Russia has considerable interests in Manchuria. Already a state of tension exists between the two countries that shows itself every now and again in some inflammatory incident followed by an exchange of diplomatic Notes. According to the Soviet authorities, there arc plenty Df White Russians knocking about in Manchuria who arc ready to intrigue or light against. Hie Government that has exiled them; on the other hand, rumours, always unsubstantiated, are front lime to lime circulated lo the effect that Chinese resistance to Japanese aggression receives encouragement and help from Russia. Though it is clear enough that neither Russia nor Japan lias any stomach for a war, the actual situation in .Man-

churia might easily cause them to drift into one. The discontented inhabitants of the province are themselves constantly giving trouble to the Government that has been established there by Japan, and, sometimes as bandits, sometimes as Chinese Nationalists egged on by Soviet agents, they add to the Manchurian chaos. Recently a general strike was declared on the Chinese Eastern Railway as a protest against the arrest of certain railway employees in connection with the blowing up of a Japanese armoured train, and General Ma entered upon a new phase of a remarkably varied career by denouncing the Ministry in which lie lately held the Portfolio of War. His denunciations were extravagant. He said, for instance, that poor Henry Pu-yi had tried to take poison rather than serve as Emperor-President of the Mon-archical-Republican and highly independent State of Manchuria, and that he, General Ma, had been bullied and cajoled by the wily Japanese into forgetting for a short time his duty as a loyal Chinese subject. General Ma is, of course, a joke. But Manchuria is not a joke. It is the most menacing situation in a world that is full of menacing situations.