Mr. Lenox-Simpson on Causes of Changchun's Failure: Joffe Master of Situation Peking, Oct. 4.
Mr. Lenox Simpson, of the President's Office, who acted. as official observer during the Changchun Conference, returned to Peking to. day. from Mukden where he had remained several days in order to confer with General Chang Tso-jin, regarding the Manchurian-Maritime Province frontier, which is likely to be the scene of heavy fighting after the Japanese evacua. tion (October 31). General Chan, Tso-lin declared that full precautions would be taken, the frontier guard being raised to at least 30,600 men with absolute instruc. tions to disarm and intern all units that cross into Chinese t-rritory.
Regarding the Changchun Conference Mr. Simpson stated that in his opinion the breakdown was due more to the poor choice of locality than to any other cause. He believed that had the meeting been staged in Tokio instead of a Manchurian railway town there would have been very different results, for the gulf between the Japanese and the Russians was more apparent than real. The Tokio Government had absolutely no intention to make another Shantung of Saghalin. It needed, however, the flexibility that every Government possesses at its headquarters to adjust smoothly a point of honour such as the Nicolaievsk affair. The Japanese Delegates had very definite instructions and could not make a volte face in such environment as Changchun. Immediately Saghalin and Nico-Jaievsk were mentioned the conference was doomed.
It is worthy of note, in view of imminence of Russo-Chinese negotiations, that from the outset Japanese Delegation was puzzled by the methods of Mr. Joffe, who is a remarkable man. Having studied under Freud in Vienna he has brought the Freudian _psycho-analytic technique a high pitch of efficiency in diplomatic handlings, his method being such that he possesses an inevitable superiority over less well trained opponents. That the Far Eastern Republic was merely invented by Soviet Russia as an experimental aration to see how far it was possible to swing to the right on the matter of property, private contracts and universal suffrage without reintegrating the old Capitalistic State was brilliantly dealt with in. the initial clash over the subject of full powers which Mr. Joffe possessed for both Governments, When be laid it down as fundamental that the preamble of any and every agreement must contain the name of Soviet Russia—and won his point—he had created new situation All attempts of the Japanese Delegation when the discussion turned to the Dairen draft agree-
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