(Continwed from page 884) the enemy. Yet it must be remembered that in this particular propaganda war the Japanese got their blow in first with allegations which on the face of them were manifest exaggerations, and the moderation with which the Soviet has belatedly replied serves to curry a fair degree of conviction that their recounts are a closer approximation to the truth, In the three air engagement which the Soviet communique admits, the Mongols lost 23 aeroplanes ayainst an alleged 58 of their opponents. The Japanese version gives 49 Soviet machines destroyed at a cost of only ye of their own. The ratio of opposing casualties 13 more reasonable in. the Russian version than in the Japanese, and the probability appears to be that the former is much closer to the truth than the latter, Thus a comparison of the two stories does not permit of the conclusion that the Soviet-Mongol forces put up stich a hopelessly inefficient struggle as the Japanese story would have the world believe. The greater modesty. of the Soviet claims justify the assumption that if a dividing Tine between the two accounts has to be drawn it will be closer to the Russian than to the Japanese, and the observer who assumes that the outcome of these incidents leaves the position very much similar to that which existed after the fight ing at Changkaofeng last year will probably be nearer a correct estimate of the position an he who accepts the Japanese ver toto.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.