§ 34. Mr. GRENFELLasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any statement to make regarding affairs in the Far East?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Viscount Cranborne)As regards North China and Sino-Japanese relations generally, the situation has not altered materially since the answer given by my right hon. Friend on 4th February to questions put by my hon. Friend the Member for South-West St. Pancras (Mr. Mitcheson) and the hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. T. Williams). Hon. Members will have observed that there has latterly been a recrudescence of incidents, involving in some cases loss of life, along the borders separating Manchuria from Outer Mongolia and the Soviet Far Eastern provinces respectively. My right hon. Friend understands that in both cases the institution of border commissions to deal with the situation is under consideration. The text of the protocol signed on 12th March between the Soviet Government and the Outer Mongolian authorities has been communicated by the Soviet Government to the Chinese Government, and has led to a protest from the latter who consider it to be incompatible with the Sino-Soviet Treaty of May, 1924, in which the sovereignty of the Chinese Republic over Outer Mongolia was recognised. The Soviet Government do not however admit the incompatibility. I might add that His Majesty's Government have noticed with pleasure that, in the course of a recent statement, the Siamese Minister for Foreign Affairs referred to Siam's friendship with this country and her fidelity to the League of Nations, as also to his own attachment to the policy of international co-operation in the cause of peace.