Evening star., 1939-08-06

Russia and Japan are engaged in a
test of strength in preparation for the
war each feels certain it will have to
fight someday to decide the mastery of
Eastern Asia.
Along wild section of frontier be-
tween Outer Mongolia and Manchukuo
Soviet and japanese armies are feeling
each other out, trying to determine their
military efficiency, their maneuverability
and the size of each others forces.
Skirmishes have been frequent along
the 2,000-mile frontier of Manchukuo
since the japanese penetrated to its
farthest recesses in 1872, but not since
1885 have the japanese had a chance to
throw their troops into action on so
large scale in this sector as has been
the case since fighting broke out May
IL around Lake BUR and the Khalka
river.
Last year Russia and Japan fought a
month-long "vestpocket war" at Chang
kufeng, near the junction of the ST.
berian, Korean and Manchukuoan
borders, but it ended as abruptly as it
had begun with each side claiming vic
judges could give.
That little war proved a lot to the
Japanese, however, principally that the
theory the Soviet army was fatally I'M
dermined by the purge was just lot of
eyewash. The despised Russian troops
gave the Japanese some of the best
fighting they had seen since Shanghai,
and Russian pilots and artillerymen
proved with deadly effectiveness that
their aim with bomb and heavy shell
was just as true as that of the Chinese
who put up a three month scrap for
Shanghai.
Far From Undefended.
Likewise the japanese have learned
since May II that the Outer Mongolian
border is far from undefended, and that
if they want to penetrate Outer Mon
golia as they have Inner Mongolia they
will have some battling to do
They have learned, too, that the Outer
Mongolian army is not a handful of
primitive horsemen who might be
frightened into flight by the roar of big
guns and bombing planes, but is fairly
efficient military organization COM
pletely equipped with artillery, planes
and all the accoutrements of modern
warfare. Consequently, Japan has taken
her protests not only to Ulan Bator, the
Outer Mongolian capital, but to Mos
uh hn
implements of war come.
The Japanese learned that the Rus
slams have whipped the wild Mon
golian nomads who inhabit the land of
Genghis Khan into a military force
which can give pause to the mighty
japanese army. Supplemented by Soviet
artillery-some of it of heavy caliber-
Soviet planes, Soviet trucks and perhaps
a sizable number of Soviet troops, too,
the army of the Mongo,ian Peoples Re-
public has given good account of itself
in the border jabbing around the Khalka
river and Lake BUR.
The Mongolian army is Soviet army,
however, and not strictly Mongolian
force. It exists because of and for Soviet
Russia. Without it the Soviet lifeline
in Eastern Siberia would be vulnerable
to immediate Japanese attack. The ex-
tent to which the army which holds the
Outer Mongolian bastion for Soviet Rus
sia has been built up and is able to strike
powerfully far from its bases of supply is
one of the revelations of the fighting.
Fated to Rule Asia.
Japan covets Outer Mongolia, covets
1t eagerly for three reasons.
First, because the underlying motive
behind all of Japan's campaign in China
is the conviction-which amounts to a
dogma of national destiny-that Japan is
fated to rule Asia. This is no mere po-
litical tenet like the manifest destiny
which impelled Americans to take every
thing they could lay their hands on in
the Nineteenth Century, but is a deeply
held, almost religious belief that the
Nipponese are people chosen to rule.
If Japan is to rule Eastern Asia she
must conquer everything that was ever
a part of the Chinese empire, and Outer
Mongolia is still technically under
Chinese sovereignty, although practical
ly part of the Soviet. Union.
Second, is the motive Of strategy. Rus
sia rules vast region Of Eastern Asia AZ
q part OF Siberia, and the easternmost