Evening star., 1923-10-22
EAST is EAST
BY FRANK III. HEDGES


classes standing in a railway station
in one of the cities of northern Man
churia. A curse went with the blow,
but the Russian merely covered his
aching ear and cringed back. He took
the blow without a murmur, reacted
in exactly the same manner as the
coolie of Peking or Shanghai who is
struck by Chinese policeman-or
by a foreigner. .-.
Within the past few years the
Russian has done more to 'lose face"
for all foreigners in China than has
any other one person or event. The
problem of several hundred thousand
Russians drifting about the republic.
subject to the laws and abuse OF
laws by the Chinese. without the
protection of their homeland behind
them, without funds and without
ways of making a living. Is a problem
whose serious effects are felt less IN
Moscow than In London, Washington
and Paris. The Russian is q repre-
sentative of western peoples IN tne
east. No matter how he abused ms
position In the past, and he did abuse
1t greatly, his present pitiable state
causes not only him but all Europeans
and Americans to lose the respect or
the more ignorant classes OF China,
the classes that make up the great
bulk of the nation of hundreds OF
The condition Of the Russians in
Manchuria, even OF those who make
their living by smuggling opium, is
one of poverty. They have very
houses. while their clothes and ap-
pearance are slovenly in the extreme
Occasionally a woman Is passed on
the street who has made attempts to
dress well, such pitiful attempts that
they rouse sympathy. Perhaps her
dress viii be cut in the latest style,
but 1t will be made OF the cheapest
sort of materials.
From the time that the bolsheviks
rode into power, thousands of Rus
SLAMS who refuse to acknowledge the
soviet government have crossed the
Amur river in Manchuria, have come
down into China across the great
deserts of Mongolia or through the
mountain passes of Kansu and Sin
kiang. Bones lie scattered all along
this latter route, for It Is q hard and
difficult Journey and many have per-
ished in attempting to make 1t.
Harbin, the headquarters of the
Chinese Eastern railway, is the haven
OF refuge for many. The control OF
the railway by French, Polish and
imperialist Russian interests gives
employment, in some cases wealth. 70
several thousand Russians who would
otherwise be destitute, but those
Russian whites who are not taken
under its protecting wing drift from
city TO city, from province to prov
ince. picking up what odds and ends
they can. America is their promised
land, but even the few who are able
to pay their Pacific passage
fear that on their arrival on the west
coast Of this country they would be
turned back under the restricted I'M
migration laws now in effect.
Since the revocation by China three
years ago of the extraterritorial
rights OF all Russians, those In north
China are without legal protection
other than the Chinese courts, which
are more often used to extort money
or to heap abuse on them than to give
them fair and impartial justice. w hen
the commission authorized by the
Washington conference to examine
into the feasibility of the abolition
of extraterritoriality visits China, it
is to be hoped that its members will
slip quietly UP to Harbin without the
blare of trumpets and there get
glimpse of how Chinese law actually
operates in the case of foreigners
when Chinese underiings believe that
they can get away with it.
x x !: =
1t is true that the Germans in
China, who are also without extra
tarriseriality under the terms of their
new treaty, have no serious COM
plants TO make, but this is due to
the fact that the Chinese still fear
and respect Germany despite the out
come OF the war, and, to an even
greater extent, because the German
has too much self-respeot TO live on
the plane OF the coolie. To the
average Chinese of Manchuria, the
Russian is no better than coo!le.
Russians may be found working side
by side with Chinese in street gangs
or in other menial tasks. The Chinese
who sees this at once gains nothing but
contempt for Russia and all Russians,
while many make no differentiation be-
tween Russians and other foreigners.
Because he Is without the protec-
tion of the laws of his own land and
because OF the Chinese opinion OF
him, the Russian in north China ana
as far south as Shanghai is subject
| to all manner of hardshipS at the
hands of the more brutal and un-
restrained Chinese, officials and
civilians alike. Arrests are frequent
| In Harbin for no cause whatever, and
| the prisoners are placed in dirty and
crowded jails for days awaiting trial.
against them, but this has nothing
to do with the treatment they receive
at the hands of the Chinese under
officials. A bribe IS always sufficient
| to obtain better treatment.
AS the Russian walks along the
street or through the market place
he is apt to hear bitter gibes and
taunts thrown at him in Chinese, and
he is fortunate If he fails to under
stand the language. At least some
Of the American residents Of Harbin
carry tiny red, white and blue flags
| In their pockets, ready to flash them
on some ignorant Chinese at any
time to prove the nationality of their
owners: The American nag is I far 4.
courts of China as at present con-
stituted.
| The upper class Chinese and the
higher officials do not take this same
attitude, but they are in a minority
and the governor of a province can.
not effectively direct the actions OF
| the vegetable seller or the itinerant
barber when he chances to pass some
Russian on the street who Is down
\ and out. That barber recalls some
personal incident of several years
past. when a Russian dressed in furs
| swept past behind his prancing horses
and upset the BARRIERS little street
| shop, perhaps even lashed at him
with a whip and jeering laugh.
| It may be argued that the Russian
| Is merely getting back what he gave
in former years, for no foreigner IN
China has ever been as arrogant as
| the Russian of other days. But the
blow given by the Chinese officer in
! the railway station did not equalize
| and cancel the old score; 1t merely
stored up fresh bitterness, the more
| intense since silent. that some day
must find vent. The Russians may
have earned what they are now re
| aoi.,inoc hut the Chinese are not only