TRUCE IN MANCHURIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20425, 29 November 1929, Page 13

TRUCE IN MANCHURIA.

SOVIET AND MUKDEN.

MOSCOW STATES TERMS.

'ACCEPTANCE REPORTED.

OFFICIALS ON RAILWAY.

REINSTATEMENT IN POSTS

©y Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrigl:

(Received November 28. 6.5 p.m.)

Crimes Cable. LONDON, Nov. 27. The Kiga correspondent of tho Times fcavs the Soviet announces the conclusion cf a truce with .tho Manchurian Government, which accepts tho Soviet's conditions.

Tho negotiations for the truce were fcegun on November 21 by emissaries from Mukden, who crossed the lines at [Pogranit chnaya. Tiio Moscow correspondent of the Daily [flews says the Soviet's condifions were:— (1) A return to tho status quo ante. (2) The reinstatement of Yemshanoff fend Eismont, former manager and assistant manager respectively of tho Chinese [Eastern Railway. (3) The release of arrested Russian pitir.ens.

The Assistant Commissar of Foreign [Affairs, Litvinoff, has cabled to the [Mukden Government proposing a preliminary meeting at Habarovsk to discuss the place and date of a peace conference.

The rupture of relations between Manchuria and China on the one hand and Russia on the other was caused by the Seizure by the Chinese of the Eastern [Railway in Manchuria. An authority discussing the trouble with a representative of the Observer on July 20 last said: " The Chinese believed that Russia pras contemplating tho sale of her interest to Japan. Whether such a sale ought to be regarded as an infringement cither of tho original agreement between China and Imperial Russia or of that of 3924 between Revolutionary China and Soviet Russia is difficult to say. The actual situation as between Russia and China regarding the ownership of the yailway is, however, quite clear. " Under the original agreement. China had tho right to buy out the Russian Snt«xest at a stated time, that is to say, 36 years from the date on which the agreement was signed, and these 36 years . expire about 18 months from now. (Therefore, the question of the Russian .view of the future of the railway has recently assumed a new importance. The Chinese had no more than rumour on which to base their belief that the Russians were contemplating the sale of their interests to Japan, but the rumours to that effect were so persistent last autumn that well-informed observers on the spot were inclined to take them serlouslv.

" The possibility of the transfer of the Russian interest to Japanese hands opened a serious prospect for China, for it would mean , a substantial increase in Japanese control over the whole of Manchuria at a moment when the. Chinese are doing everything in their power to limit that control. It is impossible to say what the attitude of Japan has been or would be „fo the rumoured Russian offer. Before this crisis arose the Japanese were more or less content with the status quo but it is probable that the Japanese Government would reserve to itself " wh.lt is diplomatically called freedom of action ■were any serious change in the balance of power between Russia and China to take place in North Manchuria.

" The Russians cannot contemplate with equanimit}' the continued decline of their influence in North Manchuria; and their rumoured seizure of Manchuria and Pogranitchnaya shows that they mean to restore t{ie status quo ante. They possess in the part ownership of the Chinese Eastern Railway an asset of' economic, military and political value, and they may be expected to handle the- present 6ituation in 'such a way as to attempt to recover some of the influence and prestige in North Manchuria they have undoubtedly lost during the past two years."