SOVIET HOLD ON DAIREN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25270, 23 August 1947, Page 9

SOVIET HOLD ON DAIREN

U.S. PROTESTS TO MOSCOW

DECISION BY CHINESE GOVERNMENT (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Aug. 21. The United States has again protested against Russia’s continued closure of the port of Dairen. A Note to Moscow said that the United States Government would hold the Soviet Government responsible for the treatment accorded to American interests while Dairen was under Russian rule.

The Note said that nearly two years had passed since the Japanese surrendered, but Dairen was still closed to world trade and representatives of American firms were not permitted to occupy or even visit their own properties in the outskirts of the city. [Under the 1945 Russian-Chinese treaty, Russia agreed to return Dairen to Chinese administration, and the port was to be opened to world trade. Russia, however, has banned all foreign shipping from the port, including American ships carrying diplomatic mail and supplies to the American Consulate.)

In Nanking yesterday the Chinese Government’s Information Director (Mr Hollington Tong) said that the Chinese Government was studying closely frequent reports that Soviet ships from Dairen had been supplying the Communists; He added that China’s Executive v uan had decreed that any vessel, including Russian vessels, entering or leaving Dairen would, in future, be deemed to be operating illegally in Chinese waters.

Mr Tong declared that Dairen was a port under Chinese jurisdiction and therefore should not be used exclusively by any foreign 'Power. Recently Mr Tong announced that a Chinese Government mission had failed to obtain required information from Dairen because of Russian "obstruction.”

The Associated Press says that although Chinese officials recognise that China lacks the physical means of enforcing the closing order, the Executive Yuan has ordered Government ministries “to take appropriate steps against ships operating illegally.”