JAPANESE MOVEMENTS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 May 1920, Page 2

JAPANESE MOVEMENTS

j AUSTRALIAN & N.Z. CABLE ASHOCIAOTOW] ' LONDON, May 22. It is understood Japan will seek to. begin negotiations with Russia for the creation of a buffer State in Siberia. TOKIO, May 20. A Japanese force is proceeding tp Nikolaevsk. Some Americans who escaped from the port of Nikolaevsk, which is ice-bound, state some Bolsheviks took possession of the town and made prisoners of all the anti-Bblshe-viks Russian soldiers and tile bourgeois. The Americans say tlie Bolsheviks slaughtered 200, and the latter \Vere. buried under the ice on the river Amur. The Japanese were there, and their commander protested. The Reds demanded the disarmament of the Japanese garrison. The Japanese commander refused to disarm and fighting then commenced. The Japanese took refuge in their consulate, which, however, caught fire. In desperation the Japanese, seeing no hope of rescue, and being pledged not to surrender, deliberately plunged in the flames, crying “ Banzai.” The victims of the fire inj eluded the Japanese'Consul, his wife : and two children. The Japanese force I sent to Nikolaevsk ‘to rescue; the re- : maining residents will, it is feared, arrive only after the Reds have killed all. HONOLULU, May 21. According to a dispatch from Tokio, the War Office has announced that Japanese troops landed at Nikolaevsk on May Tfi to begin operations against the Bolsheviks.

ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE AND THE CHINESE. WASHINGTON, May 21. Advices from Peking state the Chinese Foreign Office lias instructed the Chinese/ Minister at London and the Charge d’Affaires at Tokio to request the British and Japanese Governments to consult China in the event of the Anglo-Japaneso Alliance making a disposition in regard to Chinese matters. It is understood that Chinese public organisations at Shanghai and Peking have addressed a request to the Chinese Government to protest against the provision in the Anglo Japanese Alliance by which Britain and Japan claim' to guarantee China's integrity.