Evening star., 1929-12-01
Scenes on the Rail
Line of Asia's War
BY DREW PEARSON.

With RuSSia'S 1ncipient violation or
the Kellogg peace pact held In check
by Chinese overtures concerning the
seizure of the Chinese Eastern Railway,
this line, unique among the carriers Of
the world, comes into prominence again.
The Russian attack was long con-
templated. according to reports here, the
moment the rich soil of the terrain was
frozen hard to make an advance pos
sible.
This railway, the short cut from ST.
IBERIA to the sea, passes through coun-
try similar to the American prairies OF
the Northwest and as wild and for
bidding as they we're in the 40s. The
road has a further American connec-
ton, since most of its stock is Ameri-
can made. The tremendous locomotives
required to pull its wide-gauge cars
could be built nowhere else.
A* ~
It's cars come close to resembling
small barns mounted on wheels. They
are so high that in third-claSS carriages
the berths are stacked in three instead
of two tiers, as in American Pullmans.
The cars are so wide that an extra
tier of berths also can be placed paral-
lei to the aisle, in addition to the COM
partments which run alongside the
other side of the car.
These compartments are packed with
all sorts of humanity, typical Of the as
sorted races which dwell upon the wild
Manchurian plain. This writer once
shared one OF these compartments with
a former Officer in the CZariSt army, o
RuSs'"Y = Tat girl, Japanese mer-
chant, a Chinese of unknown occupa-
ton and a Cossack cattleman. All of
them slept apparently quite comfortably
on the hard wooden benches which
lined the walls Of the compartment
three tiers high.
Even in times of peace the Chinese
Eastern Railway carries just behind
the engine an armored car loaded with
troops. Each bridge is carefully guard
ed, and when the train stops at sta
tionS, nearly always for periods Of 20
to 80 minutes, Chinese corporal guard
PAGES energetically up and down the
platform and then draws to salute the
engineer as the train pulls out.
The towns and villages through which
the Chinese Eastern Railway passes
west Of Harbin are nothing more than
Mongolian trading posts, consisting of
mud hutS and log cabins. surrounded
by stockades of spiked sticks. The pop
ulations are chiefly hard-riding Co.'S
sack cattlemen, who use such short
stirrupS that they must always ride on
one side Of the saddle with one knee
bent.
Mixed with them are Mongols, with
their long skirts of red and yellow, with
weirdly pointed toes who have mi
grated from Eastern Mongolia to North
Manchuria. In recent years Chinese
from Shantung and other parts of
China trekked to Manchuria in great
numbers. where their methods of in
tenSive cultivation are beginning to
form a permanent peasantry instead of
the rowing nomads from Mongolia and
Siberia. In addition to these there are
a number of Japanese merchants and
a scattering of Russian exiles.
1t Is a land where no man goes out
alone at night unless armed and where
no one opens his door without flrst In
quiring who seeks admission.
Despite his wildness, 1t is consid-
cred one of the granaries Of the future.
It's soil is one Of the most fertile in
the world and compares to the "gumbo"
soil Of Texas.
Manchuria has long been called the
crossroads" OF the Orient, where
European Russia meets both Oriental
China and weSternized Japan. It was
rivalry over Manchuria that caused the
war in 1904, as q re-
suit of which Russia handed over to
Japan all of South Manchuria, with
the valuable Russian-built South Man
churian Railroad. 1t was then agreed
that Russia was to retain the Chinese
Eastern Railway, giving her Trans
siberian Railroad short cut and saw
ing 1000 miles to vladisvostok and the
Pacific.
(Copyriaht, 1921