The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND SHADOW SPARRING IN MANCHURIA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 720, 20 July 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND SHADOW SPARRING IN MANCHURIA

BLOW for blow, the Soviet Government is prepared to answer any attempt by China to cancel Russia’s material and political. interest in Manchuria. Neither nation is prepared for war on anything like the scale by which modern combats are measured. Their very unpreparedness is a factor in determining the widespread belief that their' present gestures mean nothing more than verbal defiance. But if that is the case, China has the whip hand, and Russia must be the loser. The interests over which China is concerned lie within her own borders. True, the territory for many years was only nominally Chinese. Japanese and Russian troops have garrisoned it since the beginning of the century. But in its political relation to China the territory is now more closely knit than ever before in its history. Its laws are the laws of China, which in an international dispute must be recognised. And though Russia is pinning her faith desperately to the shreds of her treaty rights, these have been modified so often, and Russia’s own internal organisation has been so recast, that their true meaning is obscure. Short of resort to arms, Russia must emerge the loser. Again and again, in the long swing of Eastern history, )‘lanchuria has been the centre of jealousy and conflict. and the source of powerful military enterprises that have carried l\'lanchu influence into China and Korea. The successor to the picturesque figures of history was the late I\larshal Chang—tsovlin who, welding Manchuria into a compact entity, gave a new spirit to its armies. His control introduced an era of something like stability, contrasting sharply With the chaotic conditions in the war-ridden south. As a result there began one of the most remarkable migrations in history, an exodus of millions of peasants from the ravaged south to the black-earth country of North Manchuria. Establishing new homes in what was formerly considered a barren wilderness, this great horde of primitive, courageous people has given remote :Manchuria a new economic importance. It has given China both sentimental and material cause to guard her material interests more closely than over. Now, examine the situation from Russia’s viewpoint. The country east of the great lloly Sea, Lake Baikal, has always been regarded as vital to Russia’s imperial aspirations. \Vest of Baikal the country largely consists of inhospitable Siberian steppe. To the east, there is varied country rich in furs and minerals, and ofiering a. welcome to the pioneering settler. To tap this country Russia had dreams of a trans-Siberian railway as long ago as 1850. In the characteristic Russian way, the deciding impulse did not arrive until forty years later. The railway to link Vladivostok with Moscow was actually begun in 1891 and, since for the most part it presented few engineering difficulties, was finished as far as Chita within a few years. The real engineering difficulties were in skirting the shores of Lake Baikal and in. crossing the ranges into lV‘lanchuria. Ferries operated on Lake Baikal in summer, and sleighs in Winter, until the 56-mile gap, involving the formation of 39 long tunnels, was bridged in time for the Russo—Japanese war. In the meantime, by 1897, Russia had decided to hold the construction of her own line from Chita to the Pacific in abeyance, and instead, to form a railway across Blanchuria by a route that saved six hundred miles and could be kept open all the year. ~ This was the genesis of the Chinese Eastern railway, source of the present trouble. _Financed by the so-called Russo-Chinese Bank, really an ofi'shoot of the Russian Treasury, the line was protected by treaty rights which provided that at the end. of 36 years China. could redeem the line at cost price. In any case, it was to revert to Chinese hands after 80 years. These clauses in the treaty were graceful Russian gestures; but in reality the line represented. conquest by railway, and the clash of antagonistic races was soon to come.

Japan took a hand after the Russo-Japanese war, and her South Blanchurian railway is still the most efficient in the territory. In the meantime, Russia. has lost ground in consequence of her internal political upheavals—there was actually an Eastern Siberian republic for a time—and her efforts to regain it with Bolshevik propaganda have provoked the administrators of the Chang-tso-l in inheritance into measures which. have included the arrest or deportation of Russian railway oflicials, soldiers and merchants. Even a Soviet ostensibly preoccupied with such altruistic considerations as the brotherhood of man could not disregard such a threat to her commerical interests. She may not now preserve her former imperialistie notions toward Manehuria, for her alternative railway to the north by way 0’ "tarbarovsk is now completed. But she still requires contrm ot' the Chinese Eastern railway as the most serviceable link bet ween Vladivostok and the west. She requires access to the South Manchurian ports, because they are the only ice-free ports in that part of the Pacific. These considerations excluded, she no doubt feels a natural wish to protect one of her biggest investments. But whether she can fight for what she wants is another question. She has Japan as well as China to reckon with. At this stage of the shadow-sparring China may well intimate that she desires no assistance from the Japanese. But in theaevent of a successful Russian campaign. against the armies of united China, the same united China might well appreciate some outside help.