CHINA EJECTS REDS

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1929, Page 11

CHINA EJECTS REDS

NUMEROUS ARRESTS MADE AGITATION CHARGES LAID THIRD PARTY NOT WANTED NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian Press Association. Received July 24, 11.45 p.m. Sim, ' Shanghai, July 24. Following the reported arrest of 1000 Chinese at Vladivostok, 300 Soviet employees of the Eastern Railway at Harbin and 40 at Pogranichnaya have been arrested on a charge of agitation against the Chinese authorities. . .• Neither China nor Russia is willing to accept mediation by third parties. China is now’ seeking to approach Moscow unofficially to investigate the possibility of opening direct negotiations. China does not contemplate despatching, a second Note. Chinese tea merchants, alarmed at the Russian stoppage of the purchase of Chinese tea of the annual value of £1,500,000, are bringing pressure to bear on Nanking to effect an early settlement., TENSION PERCEPTIBLY EASED. CHINESE LOATH TO FIGHT.

t Shanghai, July 23. It is learned from authoritative sources that the commander of the Japanese garrison in Manchuria has instructed the South Manchurian railway to refuse transportation of Chinese troops and munitions. The tension in ■ Manchuria has perceptibly abated. An official circular telegram hag been addressed to military and civil officials throughout the country by President Chiang, declaring that the National Government would not lightly resort to war, but at the same time urging the entire Chinese nation to prepare. ' The Soviet Government, ignoring China’s desire to avoid disturbances, had addressed to the National Government a Note, contrary to the facts, demanding . a reply in a specified time, China had replied suggesting that a plenipotentiary should be appointed by the two Governments for negotiation for a settlement, The recall of diplomatic representatives, the suspension of railway communications, and the display of force on the border bear testimony to Moscow’e utter disregard for the Kellogg Pact, it is stated. , Chiang Wang. Minister of Foreign . 'Affairs, stated . that the . Government ' had not seized but merely taken temporary control of the railway to prevent its usage undermining the existing social order. Though Russia had adopted a warlike attitude, the Gov-ei-ment did not believe that she was likely to resort to force. The Danzig correspondent of the Communist paper Red Flag alleges • ' that the North Gorman Lloyd steamer Falko left Poland for China heavily Jaden with ammunition, evading complications with the German Government Jvtr shipping a Polish crew. The company categorically denies the story.

WHITE RUSSIANS BITTER. PREVIOUS TROUBLE RECALLED. Intense bitterness exists between the Red and White Russians in Manchuria. The two parties, the Communists and the Czarists have had many conflicts chiefly among the youthful gangs formed on either side, and there have been several lives lost. In 192Gtho Whites had the Chinese.more or less with them in their struggle to get the Russian schools back out of Red hands and that ' intensified the.. Red bitterness. In Manchuria the Red Jews own practically all the business and will employ no Whites. Th© railway is also in the hands of the Reds and a Soviet passport is an essential to employment. The inability of the White youths and girls to get work in the shops and factories, unless they happen to be White Jews, who are very > scarce, has brought the hatred of religion into the political and economic struggle. Harbin has been a lawless city since its inception, about thirty years ago. a boom town into which poured the millions the Czar was spilling in pursuance of the Russian policy of expansions in China. To its flarin’g dance - halls, its wide-open gambling hells and its easy money Hocked the worst of Siberia as the convict camps released them. The war with Japan brought fresh millions to graft from and a host of vultures. The sequel of the Great 'War drove before the advancing waves of .the Red terror 100,000 refuges into Harbin, very many arriving destitute. The Chinese Eastern Railway was built and Worked by the Russians, w'ho also provided the military guards. The line runs from the Russo-Manchurian frontier to Port Arthur, but after the Russo-Japanese war the southern part of .the line was transferred to the Japanese for control and is now known as the iSonth Manchurian Railway. After the collapse of Russia in the Great War. China asserted her claims as owner the soil, and ultimate owner of the railway under the terms of the original contract. The Russian military guards ■were removed and China herself undertook protection of the raihly. The actual working of the line was still left in Russian hands. Most of these officials were White Russians, a fact which gave offence to the Soviet. In May, 1924, an agreement was reached with China and Soviet Russia, under which Soviet officials were given the management of the lino. In September of the same year a eepiirate agreement was made between the Soviet and Chang Tso-lin as head of the “Autonomous Government of the Three Eastern Provinces” under which the “business operations of the railway were under tho direct control of the railway,” a clause which also appeared jn the May agreement. A Soviet engineer, A. N. , Ivanoff, was appointed Manager of the railway in October, 1924. •: