Russia and Japan Normally the Note addressed by the Soviet
Govern- ment to the Japanese Foreign Minister in regard to the Chinese Eastern Railway would be read as something little short of an ultimatum. But Oriental diplomacy has its own technique and Moscow can with equal facility adapt itself to Oriental and to European methods. The negotiations for the sale of the railway to Manchukuo, which means in reality to Japan, have broken down, and the succession of outrages by bandits, and of arrests of Soviet officials by Japan-Manchukuo, lends obvious colour to the Soviet insinuation that attempts are being made to create excuses for simply seizing the railway and dismissing the idea of purchase. The contingency of war is unquestionably being seriously entertained both at Tokyo and at Moscow, but the probability is that differences will be patched up for the present. Russia has every reason for avoiding war, and Japan is not ready for it. The fact that Russia has large air forces at Vladi- vostock, and that Japanese cities—which are highly combustible—are within bombing distance is not being overlooked at Tokyo.
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