NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1933. CHINESE EASTERN RAILWAY

Northern Advocate, 3 May 1933, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1933. CHINESE EASTERN RAILWAY

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper,

Despite the fact that the situf ation iu Europe is such as to cause real uneasiness, there is nevertheless good reason why developments in the Far East should be watched carefully. Our cables today state that Manchukuo lias given the Soviet until May 10. to- return the locomotives and rolling stock which it took from the Chinese Eastern Railway. The Soviet has announced its determination not to accede to the request, and consequently is withdrawing the Soviet Customs brandies in Manclmkuo, in which Russian troops are reported, to he showing more activity. Japanese officials helit|tie alarmist reports that peace | between. Manchuknn and the ‘Soviet arc endangered. Tin’s may be true, though Harbin messages speak of another Russo-Japan-ese war, but it does not remove the fact that the ingredients of a serious quarrel arc provided by the Chinese Eastern Railway. This railway was a

property of Russia before the revolution. When Tsardom eollapsed, an interim regime was set up, with the’ assistance of an Inter-Allied Technical Board, presided over by Stevens, the famous American engineer. Tit 1924 China recognised Soviet Russia and also Russian rights in regard to the Chinese. Eastern Railway. The same continued to he. regarded as a property of the Russian (now Soviet) State, and only the management was placed into the hands of a mixed board of directors, with equal numbers of Russian and Chinese members. But real authority over the technical running of the lino remained, in the hands-of the gen-

oral manager, who was to In'* a Russian (Soviet). The raihvay runs across Chinese—now ' Manclmkun —territory. At the time of its construction, when it was laid through a practically uninhabited wild country, it was granted n number of privileges, such as are usually given to colonising pioneer lines. During the interim regiriic and oven after— Soviet Russia being much weaker than Imperial Russia had been in the Far Fast:—the Chinese local authorities did all possible to shear the railway of its prerogatives and to despoil it of its property. Administrative, police, educational, and other rights were cancelled, the river flotilla, the real estate in cities and along the line confiscated, the telephone exchanges seized, the operation of forest and, mining concessions interfered with and rendered almost impossible. More than that, the Chinese refused to pay for the transportation of their troops over the railway, though by agreement they were bound to do so. And the latter amounts accumulated more and more, because military transportation would also cover the transportation of the relatives of the members of the Chinese fighting forces, of their goods and chattels, and in fact of anything the Chinese military command would think fit to cover with its flag. In 1926 the patience of the Soviet general manager, Ivanoff, was exhausted, and he suspended the operation of part of the line, pending the payment of Chinese transportation dues. This was just at the height of a mutinous outbreak in Manchuria itself. Ivanoff was arrested, but released under threats from Moscow. Since then, the question of payment for transportation had been temporarily put out of the way by debiting the outstanding amounts provisionally to a special account. In 1920 the Chinese thought the time ripe for definitely ousting the Soviet. The general manager, Emshanoff, and all the leading Soviet Russians on the staff of the railway were arrested and deported, or put into concentration camps. After months of fruitless negotiations Red troops were moved against Manchuria; the. Chinese fled ignominiously, and the status quo was restored, Moscow appointing as general manager J. V. Roody, a man known for his ruthless and cruel tactics in re-establishing order on the railways in Russia after the revolution. After a lapse of two year's, the Japanese appeared on the scene, and a new regime was set up, Manchukuo appointees taking the seats on. the board of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which, as has .been said, is a property of the Russian State. During the civil Avar in

Russia huge quantities of rolling stock had accumulated on the lines of the Chinese Eastern Railway, all of them of Russian origin, and in any case also the property of the Russian State. The railway, which has a mileage of over 1100 miles, saw itself in possession of over 500 locomotives and well over 10,000 freight cars, all this much in ex : cess of actual requirements. This stock, part of which was very

much dilapidated, having gone through all the spoliations of the civil war, was put into good condition and complete repair mainly at the time of the interim regime—i.e., even before there was any official Chinese governmental participation in the management of the line. These repairs were, effected at the expense of the railway—out of funds which, in normal times, would have had to be remitted to the Russian Government. During the Japanese invasion large numbers of the above-mentioned locomotives and ears, Avhieh for years already had been kept in depots not far from the Soviet boundary, were sent across it. Manehukuo, in reality Japan, demands that these, and other lulling stock should he returned. The Soviet refuses to comply* As a consequence a situation fraught with serious possibilities, has been created.