MANCHURIA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 3, 3 December 1931, Page 12

MANCHURIA

CHINA’S BATTLEGROUND. Manchuria, over which the trouble between China and Japan has arisen, is one of the richest territories in the world (writes “Vindex” in the Sydney Morning Herald). Before 1916 it was little exploited. Since then there has been fierce competition for the trade, railways being constructed in various directions. Russia, thirty years_ ago, began the exploitation of the desirable land. Japan fought her in 1905, and then gained a footing by taking over the South Manchurian Railway, and Port Arthur. China is now progressing rapidly, and a national spirit is arising. Foreigners in her territory who have not assimilated are to the Chinese patriots a sore. China has been developing Manchuria with numerous lines. Japan complains of the competition, declaring that there was an agreement that has been violated by China. Japan brings most of the trade down to Dairen, near Port Arthur. China intends to open a new port on the other side of the gulf, Hulutao, and beat the Japanese port, Dairen. That, J amidst all the complications and the natural hostility to the foreigners, is at the bottom of the dispute. Nothing outside her home affairs has j ever given Japan so much concern as I Manchuria. Her overcrowded islands are her statesmen’s nightmare. Man-j churia offered an opening for distri- 1 bution of the surplus population. But the Japanese did not migrate. The Chinese did. They went north in their millions. * Japan was threatened in Manchuria with being overwhelmed. If she had not her people there she had markets and sources of supply to foster and safeguard. The problem became more intense. The threatened diversion of traffic, tapping the wealth of both Russian and Japanese spheres in Manchuria, and taking it to a Chinese port made it more serious still. The Chinese said that the decision to break the Japanese monopoly through the South Manchuria line was owing to the country despairing of any change in the Japanese policy, which was one of conquest, the railway being the plaything of the Japanese military. Southern Manchuria is wedged in between the Japanese-annexed Korea on the coast and inner Mongolia. Northern Manchuria has Silberia on the north and west. The Russian Trans-Siberian railway skirts its northern side and comes down Russian territory between Manchuria and the coast to Vladivostok. The Chinese Eastern Railway traverses Manchuria east and west; the South Manchuria Railway runs north and south, and joints it, thus forming aT. The south line also has a branch from Mukden running down through Korea to the coast as well as Dairen. It can thus be easily grasped that the Chinese railway policy of making branch, lines on the sides of the T to concentrate the traffic on their line and bring it down to Hulutao means much to Japan. A RICH PRIZE. Manchuria, China’s outer territory, contains nearly 400,000 square miles, tocracy, the Manchus, who, when they It is the home of China’s ancient arisconquered China in the 16th century, made the people shave their heads, and so the “pigtail” became the nation’s characteristic until the Manchu characteristic until the Manchu dynasty was destroyed a few years ago, and the queues came under the shears. There still remain a few Manchus in Manchuria. Before it was opened up by the railways it was probably the richest game country in the world, in which was included the coveted sable. It is the natural granary of the northern region. When the railways began to run there commenced one of the most remarkable agricultural developments of recent times. Manchuria’s three provinces in China has had the fortune to experience. Japan failing to colonise it, the Chinese migrated to the number of half a million a year, and it is estimated that in the past two decades the population has more than doubled—one of the greatest migrations in history. The present population is estimated to be about 26,000,000, of whom 95 per cent, are Chinese and 3 per cent. Manchu. The Japanese portion was etsimated in 1928 to be 203,000. So that from the point of view of populatioun the territory is Chinese. The soil is said to be the richest in the world, beans, millet, wheat, and rice being the principal crops, the area under cultivation being given last year as 81,700,000 acres. Formerly the wheat was all exported, but in recent years the flour industry has been growing and mills in Manchuria turn out 15,000,000 sacks annually. Other production is steadily growing, in addition to which there are the great Manchurian forests and coal, iron, gold, silver, lead, and cement. Dairen, formerly a small, insignificant place, fortieth in the list in importance, has become the third port on the China coast.

Koreans have also migrated in past years to Manchuria through oppressive officialdom and congestion, their country being annexed by Japan, they, like the Chinese, trekked to the land of promise, and there is an estimate of 900,000 Koreans in the territory. Their presence is a bone of contention between China and Japan, the Japanese, it is said by the Chinese, never ceasing to regard the Koreans as Japanese subjects. China renounced suzerainty over Korea when defeated in the war with Japan in 1898-9, the result of which was the ceding of Formosa to Japan. China lost considerable territory by her war with Japan, but from time to time other territory has been given over by lease or otherwise included in which is Shanghai, which has attained a remarkable position as a great city and has become the sheet anchor of the Chinese _ themselves, a place of justice, protection, and safety for all within its boundaries. The new spirit of China naturally enough calls for “China for the Chinese.” China was perhaps 98 per cent, illiterate. but education is now spreading amazingly, and with it the new spirit of the Republic. Manchuria seems destined to become the battleground of all the conflicting interests that are contained in the present condition of affairs in that much troubled nation.