Evening star., 1932-05-19
RUSSO-JAPANESE
TENSION INCREASES.
Anxiety of Soviet Leads to
Massing of 10000 Troops
in Eastern Siberia.
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.

The Russo-Japanese relations are
becoming increasingly strained. al
though the foreign offices in Moscow
and Toxic claim no aggressive prepara-
tions are being made on either side.
During the last 10 days no less than
1872 Soviet officials of the Chinese East
ern Railway have been arrested by the
Japanese military authorities under va
rious charges and are being kept in Jail
at Mukden.
On the other hand, the Chinese rebels
in Manchuria have been inf1icting seri-
GUS losses on the japanese army of
occupation and have escaped pursuit
by crossing the Manchurian frontier
into Siberia
The Russian government seems to be
afraid of a surprise attack from Japan
and has concentrated in Eastern Siberia
so far some 10000 men and 280 air
planes. The Vladivostock district has
become the great supply center for the
Russian Army; large quantities of food,
especially Canadian wheat, arms and
ammunitions are being brought into
that region with all possible speed.
Police Force" Increased.
The japanese have increased their
army of occupation of Manchuria, the
japanese police force" as Toxic likes
to call it, from some 65 900 to 115,000
men and more troops are reported to be
held in readiness to go from Japan into
Northern Manchuria at an early cate.
AS long as the civilian cabinet swayed
a certain amount of influence in Japan
the risk of a conflict between japan and
Russia seemed remote. The late Pre-
mier Inukai and the leading japanese
business men considered the risk of a
conflict with Russia as too great for
Japarl to be undertaking at the present
moment Not that any one doubted
Japan's military superiority over Russia,
but it was thought that such an adven-
ture might easily develop into long
drawn struggle. with initial spectacular
successes for the Japanese army and
yet without any definite results. The
Japanese civilian politicians were afraid
lest a conflict with an outside power
should galvanize the masses of Russia,
strengthen the power of the Soviet
government and enable it to carry on
war with all Russias tremendous re-
sources Of man power.
Civilians Worried.
Furthermore, the civilians were wor-
ried about the possibility Of the Chinese
taking advantage of Japan's entangle-
ments and seriously hurt the japanese
interests In Manchuria and other parts
of China. The japanese big business
men are reported to have emphatically
informed the former government that
while they had not the slightest mis-
givingS about the high value Of the
army and the navy, they feared that
Japan could not, from the economic
point of view, afford a prolonged war
with even a power such as Russia.
These men have been silenced in
the last few days. According to recent
information received from Toxic it
appears clear the next cabinet will be
completely under the influence Of the
young army elements, who are clamor-
ing for a war with any nation which
may oppose Japan's ambition of be-
coming the dominating power in the
Far East.
Under these circumstances 1t ap-
pears the situation in the Far East
has entered into a precarious stage.