JAPAN: Soviet Treaty

Negotiations (for Japanese recognition of Soviet Russia) between the Japanese Government and the Russian A. A. Joffe, reached an impasse, with the refusal of Joffe to admit Russian responsibility for the Nikolaievsk massacre or to concede special rights to the Japanese in North Sakhalin.

Both parties are obviously toying with Western public opinion and playing for time, because the paramount issue has no relation to the ostensible points of variance. For both countries the condition of China, now approaching "a geographical expression," is the paramount interest. When the trifling disputes directly treated...

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