RUSSO-CHINA TROUBLE

Hokitika Guardian, 26 January 1926, Page 2

RUSSO-CHINA TROUBLE

CHANG AS SAVIOUR OF CHINA

[Australia & N,Z. Cable Association.]

LONDON, Jan. 24. The “Times’s” Jtign correspondent savs:—“Advices from Moscow portray the Bolshevist leaders arc dismayed at the Manchurian developments. Appar- * ently the Soviet action is intended merely to hamper the Manchurian forces’ mobility against the so-called National Armies, and Chang 'lso Liu’s determined retaliation came as a bombshell to Moscow, where the view seems to prevail that open, effective iuteJvention is impossible in the present circumstances, especially as it is believed that it would involve a clash with Japan. It is held that Chang Tso Liu would not risk what. he is risking without the assurance of Japanese support. It is reported that the movement of considerable Red Army forces towards China is regarded as mere, bluff, as is also « veiled threat contained in M. Tchitcherin’s three-day ultimatum. Sir l’crcivnl Lnnclon, telegraphing to the “Daily Telegraph” from Pekin, expresses the opinion that tho control of film Chinese Eastern Railway is the key to the imbroglio with Russia. It has been the property ot the Soviet since the White Russians were defeated hut the Chinese so uiers claimed the right to use the railway, and when M. Ivanoft. the Manage!, demanded payment for use. Chang Tso Lin arrested M. Ivnnoff,. thus definitely challenging the Soviet s an- - thority in China, where propaganda > has been costing Russia three million sterling annually. When she failed to convert China, to Bolshevism throng Chinese leaders, the boviet began stirring up the Chinese masses tox.olonce, by a direct stimulation policy, which, however, proved a fiasco (no Russian attack is likely to establish Chang Tso Lin’s position as the saviour of China.”