RUSSIA-CHINA: Growling & Hissing

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From Moscow came no equally authoritative counter charge. Soviet troops were admittedly mobilizing to menace Manchuria like a pair of tongs closing in from Manchuli and Vladivostok. Russian newspapers in the U. S. received word that General Uberovitch had been appointed Soviet Commander-in-Chief. During the World War he served as a regimental commander in the Imperial Russian Army, was later C.-in-C. of the Soviet forces which repulsed the white Russian Armies from Siberia in 1919. Though a taciturn martinet, Comrade Commander Uberovitch is popular in the Red Army, is reckoned its most brilliant strategist.

Which Would Win? The occidental who knows most about which side might win a Chino-Russian war is hard-boiled "Major General" Frank Sutton. He used to be chief military advisor to rapacious, barbaric old Manchurian War Lord Chang Tso-lin, father of the present Governor-Dictator of Manchuria, Chang Hsueh-Liang. Since Old Chang waged most of his wars from Mukden—and finally died there when his armored train was dynamited—the doughty General Sutton knows every inch of Manchuria's prospective battlefields and also the calibre and equipment of Chinese and Russian troops. Sought out in London, last week, where he is living in retirement, General Sutton authoritatively said: "The Manchurian Army, with which I was actively associated for five years, during which it virtually conquered two-thirds of all China, is easily the best equipped and most efficient in China. But it would be useless against Russia.

"Assuming that Russia seriously pursues war she will undoubtedly win—unless Japan steps in. Japan could stem any Russian advance with comparative ease, in spite of the fact that the Russian army is today extremely well organized and much more efficient than it was in Tsarist days. It is well equipped, well armed and well clad, loyal and enthusiastic. . . . The Russia Air Force is large, well equipped and efficient."

Asked about Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang—son of his old employer, Marshal Chang Tso-lin—General Sutton meaningly said: "His qualities as a strategist remain to be seen. If they are anything like his father's Russia will not find victory so easy to attain."