MANCHURIAN INTERESTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 941, 7 April 1930, Page 8

MANCHURIAN INTERESTS

JAPAN'S IMPORTANT RAILWAYS COMMISSIONER-ROTARIAN The quietest passenger on the Niagara, which arrived from Sydney this morning, was Mr. Masao Ohta. Only with difficulty could it be di<. covered * that he held the important position of commissioner of Japansrailway interests in Manchuria, w a « occupied to an extent in mining <j, s velopments in the huge land over which Russia and China wrangled heatedly not so long ago. and was. beside this, the representative of the R<>. tarians of Manchuria at the recent conference at Sydney.

Now, Mr. Ohta is a thr ugh passedger to Honolulu, and later will attend the great convention at Chicago, when Rotary celebrates its twenty-first birthday. Accompanying him on the voyage from Sydney were two Auckland H> tarians, Mr. Harvey Turner and Mr.!). Robertson. The Manchurian railway lines, in which Mr. Ohta is concerned, cover 700 miles from the important centre of Mukden, south to Dairen—a port near Port Arthur on a peninsula in South Manchuria held by Japan—and southeast to Chosen. The productive province of Litaoutung is effectively tapped. The disagreement- between Russia and China over railway rights in the northern areas of Manchuria did not involve the Japanese concern in any way, Mr. Ohta said. There was no doubt that Manchuria into which millions of Chinese immigrants had poured, had a promising future. Japan, by reason of Us adjacent possesisons on the mainland, was concerned in such development. After his visit to the United States, Mr. Ohta will go to Europe to study railway systems in the countries there. He expects to return to Japan in January, 1931. „