761.94/1014: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China ( Lockhart ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 6—7 a.m.]
91. Following from Harbin.
“2, February 5, 11 a.m. The Soviet Acting Consul General informed me last night that the decision of his Government to restrict parcel post service to and from Japan and Manchuria was an act of reprisal for the detention of a Soviet mail plane which had inadvertently landed near Mutanchi aerodrome on December 19, and that unless the plane, its crew of two, and its cargo of 11,000 letters are released within 2 weeks, stronger reprisals may be expected. He did not specify their probable nature. He emphatically denied the Japanese contention that the plane was armed.
He also said that on January 30 and 31 four clashes occurred near Hunchun and Aigun when Russian troops were compelled to fire on, drive back, Japanese soldiers trespassing on Russian territory, and that although no casualties were reported, he filed a strong protest with the Foreign Office delegate in Harbin.
Neither the incidents nor the protest in the circumstances reported by the press.”