EASTERN SITUATION.

Taihape Daily Times, 9 August 1918, Page 7

EASTERN SITUATION.

CZECHS AND HORVAT. LONDON, July 21. The Siberian Provisional Government established at, Vladivostok constitutes an integral part of the Siberian Government at Tomsk. JB'oth are pledged to convoke the Siberian Constitutent Assembly, to reform the national army, and to co-operate with the Allies. General Horvat’s proclamation has further complicated the situation, and the Siberian Government has denounced his co-operation as impossible. The attitude of the Czecho-Slovaks towards the Siberian Government is friendly and neutral, but they will oppose the threatened armed advance by General Horvat on Vladivostok, as the outbreak of civil war would jeopardise their operations for the relief of the Czecho-Slovaks in the interior. Reuter’s correspondent at Shanghai states that it is reported that General Alexieff has formed a new Government between Tomsk and Nijni-Ud-insk, with a view to co-operating with General Horvat.

According to Reuter’s correspondent at Amsterdam, the Berlin correspondent of the Essen Gazette states that the Soviet Government, while refusing to agree to the proposal that a- German battalion should be sent to Moscow to protect the German Embassy there, has consented to the employment of several hundred German soldiers in mufti. JAPAN’S LOYALTY. ME. BALFOUR’S TRIBUTE. The Japanese Ambasasdor and the delegates attending the International Commercial Congress in London were entertained to luncheon by the Commercial Committee at the House of Commons. Mr Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, proposed the toast of “The Japanese Ambassador and the Japanese Delegates,” and remarked that Viscount Ghinna and he were old friends. I have learned to appreciate his kindliness, his clearness of vision, his dir- 1 octness and openness of speech, and that absolute trustworthiness which is the true bond —the true diplomatic bond —between nations and without which what is supposed to bo diplomatic dexterity is mere vanity, folly, or wickedness. Our two countries in this great world crisis have no differences, they have no divergencies of aim, they are animated by no mental reservation which either is' unwilling to confess to the other. These are the true bases of national confidence and of the alliance with Japan which has done so much for the peace and prosperity and advancement of the world.” ’

The Japanese Ambassador, in reply, said: "It is nothing more than naked truth when I say that the Anglo-Jap-ancso Alliance is the keystone of our foreign policy. It occupies such authority and power because it rests on the bedrock of national sentiment.”