RUSSIA’S ANSWER

Evening Star, Issue 22572, 13 February 1937, Page 2

RUSSIA’S ANSWER

“ The announcement that the new! Russian railway is finished comes witl* dramatic suddenness after the Ger-man-Japanese agreement. It is Russia’s answer to the Japanese challenge* What was to be done to make good the loss of the Chinese Eastern Railway and to ensure rapid communication with the eastern provinces? Thd Soviet Government decided on two steps—first, to double the existing single track from Lake Baikal tit Khabarovsk; second, to build _an „ altogether new line paralled with the old one, further north, and safely oui of the way of Japanese attacks. They set about these tasks with character* istically ruthless energy, huge masse* of forced labour being sent into Sibei ria. It is estimated that there were at one time as many as 100,000 work* ing on the railways. By the end ol 1935 the double track had been laid from Lake Baikal to Khabaroysk—--1,300 miles of track in two years.’ A year later the second stage of the plan is completed. A new railway terminus and industrial centre has been built— Komsomolsk, on the Amur; and tha first through train from Moscow has arrived.”—‘ Evening Standard’ (London).