Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-26
Member Of the Associated Press.
Status Quo in Manchuria.

The Immediately urgent objective Of
International diplomacy in the Far
Eastern crisis-ayoidance of war-hav-
ing been achieved, the peace-preserving
powers, under American leadership, are
now marching toward the next goal.
This appears to be the restoration of
the status quo ante in Manchuria, or, in
plain English, the return to Russia Of
its share In the management of the
Chinese Eastern Railway
To that end Secretary Stimson is now
comforting with the representatives of
Great Britain, France, italy, Japan and
Germany. The Department Of States
position seems to be that before there
can be any arbitral settlement Of the
controversy, Russia must recover pos
session Of any proprietary and man
agerial rights of which she may have
been despoiled by China.
II the Russo Chinese railway treaty
Of 1924 had concerned itself purely and
exclusively with ownership or control
OF the Chinese Eastern line, Secretary
Stimson's essayed task would be rela-
lively simple. There is, as he has
pointed out ample precedent and prac-
tice in law, both national and inter-
national, for re-establishment of the
status quo ante before adjudication Of
counterclaims.
But the Russo Chinese agreement is
not confined to the mere matter of the
railway line. An integral portion Of the
treaty as binding and valid as any other
part is, and from the Chinese stand
point its most vital section, is the
solemn undertaking by Russia to refrain
from the propagation Of Communism in
China.
The Chinese may be expected to set
up the contention, before the status quo
negotiations have progressed very far,
that If restoration Of the pre-contZo-
very is to be fully carried out, it
would imply not only the return to
Russia Of her share of the railway con-
troll, but also Moscow's right to spread
subversive propaganda. From Nam
kings standpoint, in such q contin-
gency, 1t would be like putting back in
service Internationally a cook who
wanted to arbitrate a wage quarrel,
even though while brewing the broth
she had been apprehended in seasoning
It with poison.
According to the impressive statement
of the imbroglio published today under
the signature of Foreign Minister Wang,
China is prepared to show the world
that Red Russia was caught, over a
long series Of months, in the act Of UNI
dermining the new Nationalist Republic.
The Soviet's depredations are alleged
to have gone far beyond the mere
spreading of Communist doctrine. Mos
COW did not shrink from directing the
systematic removal by assassination, the
Nationalist claim, of China's most re-
sponsible leaders. It was to throttle
this conspiracy at the source and to
estop its fomenters from further plot
ting against the Chinese state that Rus
sian propagandists were expelled from
key positions on the railway line.
It Is difficult to foresee how there can
be any lasting settlement between the
Chinese and the Russians-arbitral or
otherwise-untl and unless the Soviet
czars pledge themselves anew to aban-
don the communication of China. How
much such pledge would be worth is
extremely problematical. With Mon
golia, Tibet and Turkestan already
propagandized into the Union Of Soviet
Socialist Republics, the world at large
is likely to fear that Russia will have
its tongue in its cheek should it agree
once again, in an arbitration of the
railway question. to keep its propa-
gandist hands of Manchuria.
In this country we must not forget
that it is primarily the Moscow gov.
ernment's refusal to pledge itself not to
conduct Communist propaganda in the
United States that has kept four ad-
ministrations at Washington in success
sion-the Wilson, Harding, Coolidge
and Hoover regimes-from according
diplomatic recognition to the imperial
ist-proletarian autocracy in the Krem-
lin.