Russo Conference

Conferences of the oriental species have precisely the same traits as those of occidental origin.

The conference at Tokyo between Japan and Soviet Russia to effect a trade agreement and possible recognition of Russia by Japan has been in session now for more than a month, without tangible sign of any better understanding.

So far the question of recognition of the Russian debt to Japan have not been discussed.

The principal thorn in Japanese flesh is the massacre (in 1920) of Japanese at Nikolaievsk in Russia. Japan demanded an apology and indemnities. The Soviet Government does not mind apologizing, but it is positively recalcitrant over paying an indemnity.

The most important item on the agenda is the transfer to Japan of the northern half of Sakhalin Island, property of the Soviet Government. This island, known to the Japanese as Karafuto, is situated to the east of Siberia and to the north of Yezo, northernmost island of the Japanese Empire.

During the War, Japanese troops occupied the northern part of the island for strategical purposes. Since that time Japan has never wholly relinquished her hold on the Russian possession. She is now trying to buy the northern half from the Soviet Government. (TIME, July 16.)

Southern Sakhalin was ceded to Japan in the Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) which terminated the Russo-Japanese War.

There is, however, a complication in the Sakhalin controversy. Late last Winter an American, Harry F. Sinclair, head of the Sinclair Consolidated Oil Co., obtained an oil concession on northern Sakhalin from the Soviet authorities. Japanese aspirations were rendered transparent by the hostile comment of a large part of the Japanese press. The Soviet Government through its representative at Tokyo, Adolph A. Joffe, is trying to get Japan to settle with the Sinclair Co., in case Russian Sakhalin is ceded.