While nothing is known in Shanghai about the agreement reached between Outer Mongolia, land Manchoukuo to define the frontier between the two nations, except the brief announcement that such an agreement has been reached, it 1 to be hoped that an end will be put to the chronic tension which has existed along that border ever since the Japanese invasion of 'Manchuria, There has always existed a potential ly dangerous situation in that area. The Outer 'Mongolian government represents in reality a Soviet expansion southwards, while the Manchoukuo government is under Japanese domination. Any' clashes between the Outer Mongolians jand' the Manchoukuo government, therefore, mean clashes between the backers of the {wo nations which might be fanned into a major tragedy. Tt is to the advantage of both Japan and Soviet Russia at present that an agreement lessening the possibility of hostilities between them, even on a minor scale, should thave been reached. The European situation is obviously bothering the Kremlin. The whole future lof that continent may be at stake in the battle now being fought in France, and M. Stalin is too much of a realist not to understand that in the event of a German victory, it will be the turn lof Russia to come under the Nazi sledge-ham-finer before long. Should such an eventuality Joceur, Russia would prefer to be able to face it without a threat to its Far Eastern provinces Jand interests. Japan is, to a less degree, in the same boat. Enormous' forces are tied'
(China, and the repeated declarations of Japanese statesmen have made it known to the world {that the principal objective of Japanese diplomacy is to make an end of the "China Affair,"
order to leave the nation free to tackle lather urgent problems. With many of the great fest trading nations in the world locked in a death-struggle in which all their economic re-[sources are being directed towards war, there are patently numerous markets open to exploitation. Gan Japan effectively exploit these openings while the "China Affair" continues? Can. Japan afford to devote its whole attention China while the Russian bear remains to [growl over frontier infringements in the north: {it the frontiers of the north are settled amic-tably, both Russia and Japan will have their hands freed for tasks more int mediately im= portant to both of them.
A Friend of Britain 'A good friend of Britain and the British passed away when Prince Tesato Tokugawa Seegee 4 seeeaseeas died in Japan, for he devoted much of his] time in endeavouring to pour oil on the: [troubled waters of Anglo-Japanese relations. "England," he said on one of his many visits {to that country, " is my second home, I am always happy here." Prince Tokugawa paid this first visit to London in 1877, when as a. boy of 14, he went to school at Sydenham College, Four years later, he was about 10)
up to Cambridge when political affairs; recalled him to Japan. Subsequently returned to England in '1910, in 1924 and in 1980 when he attended the Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union held -in London [that summer and was received by the King. [Three years later, while making a world tour: in connection with the International Red!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.