MANCHUKUO: Inference oj Battle?

Wisecracking wearily along from Tokyo toward Moscow last week. Newsclown Will Rogers paused at Hsinking. the capital of Manchukuo’s puppet Emperor to remark:*”This country is so mad at Russia they’ve broken off the diplomatic relations that never existed.”

No official break, as a matter of fact, had occurred, but Soviet Russia was thoroughly “mad” at Japan and her puppet. Manchukuo police and soldiers have been high-handedly arresting Soviet employes of the Chinese Eastern Railway (TIME, Aug. 27) along which Will Rogers jounced from Harbin to the Soviet frontier at Manchuli where he changed trains for Moscow. In Tokyo these arrests were strongly protested last week by Soviet Ambassador Konstantin Yurenev in a note which held Japan responsible for the acts of her puppet and concluded ominously: “The Government of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics expects that the Japanese Government will make all necessary inferences.

This was strong talk indeed, since for the past 18 months Japan and Russia have been carrying on “friendly negotiations” for the purchase of Moscow’s share in the Chinese Eastern by Tokyo acting for Manchukuo. Bids and offers have been jealously guarded as State secrets, but last week each side accused the other of bad faith in letting the figures leak out. Russia first asked $188,000,000, it ap peared, Japan offering $15,000,000. The haggling continued until only $12,000,000 divided Japan’s last bid of $36,000,000 from Russia’s last ask of $48,000,000.

Seemingly last week Japan was content to let the negotiations remain deadlocked at this point, encouraged Manchukuo to bait Russia. Instead of the release of Soviet railwaymen demanded by Ambassador Yurenev, 70 more were arrested in Manchukuo. In Moscow, where Josef Stalin is not anxious for a fight, correspondents were told that “Russia will not move unless her soil is trod upon.” In Tokyo testy old War Minister Senjuro Hayashi, a lion in the field though some what of a peacock in a photographer’s studio, blustered:

“The situation is really very serious and if incidents continue to occur the relations between Russia and Manchukuo will be crucially damaged.”

*Manchukuo newsorgans were ordered last week to show their puppet sovereign the same respect Japanese papers show the Son of Heaven. They must never again print his name, may refer to him only as “His Majesty” or “The Emperor”