LIFE IN MANCHUKUO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21743, 7 March 1934, Page 9

LIFE IN MANCHUKUO

RUSSIAN'S IMPRESSIONS — INROADS OF JAPANESE Ivan Tainoff, a 24-year-old Russian who lived in Queensland picking cotton near Rookhampton for two years, returned to Australia recently and was allowed to land at Sydney Ijecauso he had not abandoned his previous domicile. He was detained for about two hours awaiting a decision from Canberra.

Mr. Tainoff came to Australia in 1927 and stayed for two years, taking good care not to abandon his domicile when he left again for his native Harbin, in Manchukuo. He said his parents, who conducted a boarding house in Harbin, were getting old, and as conditions svere not good he decided ' to make his future in Australia, where lie was very happy before. Mr,, Tainoff speaks English well, despite an absence of five years, during which he heard very little English spoken. In Manchukuo, he said, tie Russians feared the Japanese and th? Japanese feared the Russians. The Japanese were holding the trade and the goods of that country were entering duty free. There were heavy duties on all other goods, including British. Russian businessmen were being forced out by the- Japanese, who controlled the police and the customs. Daily there was an exolus of Russians to Shanghai. They used a Manchukuo passport, which annoyed them, as they were not coloured :people. Mr. Tainoff, who is a iaairdresser, said modern Russians did not wear beards, and the girls were shingled and bobbed. He intends settling in Australia. Apart from his work as a Hairdresser he is an amateur musician.