White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-11-05

i upset In Far Eastern affalrS. In
1929 there was friction between
Chinese and Russians over the man
agement Of the Chinese Eastern rail
way Of northern Manchuria- friction
that brought threat of war. Now
Manchuria is the scene Of grave diff
culties between Japanese and Chinese,
and again railway is at the bottom
Of the trouble This time it is the
South Manchuria railway, owned and
operated by Japanese corporation.
railroad property near Mukden, cap
ital of Manchuria, both Chinese and
Japanese lives have been lost.
The world has grown to expect ex-
element from Manchuria for in that
country, as in Egypt and Mexico, it
seems that drama never dies. From
hereabouts, before Columbus was born,
rode Mongol horde to conquer Asia
and harass Europe.
From here, scaling the Great Wall
which timid Chinese had raised against
them, came giant Manchus to GUST the
Mings and found new dynasty at
Peiping (Peking).
Crossing the sea in clumsy junks
1900 years ago, the same bold Man.
chus took tiger and leopard skins, err
mine, and wild ginseng to trade with
Japan for silks and brocades Later.
when the near-world empire Of Kublai
Khan rolled from the Yalu to the
Danube, Mongol fleet of thousand
ships sailed against the shoguns only
to be smashed by Goods Wind on the
coast of Kyushu.
Here, through turbulent years, three
ancient empires met-the Bear, the
Dragon, and the Rising Sun. Their
struggles shook the earth. Korea sue
cumbed, absorbed by the Rising Sun !;
the Dragon mothered Manchuria. War
mangled the Bear, and to- the north
rose an evanescent Far Eastern re
public.
Two Great Events.
Yet in all it's repertoire Of high adj
venture political, martial, and eco
nomic-two events loom largest in the
stirring story Of Manchuria. They
sway not only the destiny of ancient
Manchuria itself, but they affect the
fortunes and the future of Japan.
China, and Russia These events are
the coming of the Russian-built rail
ways, and the immigration of millions
of Chinese farmers. In the last three
decades these forces, railways. and
immigrants, have jumped Manchuris
ahead by 1000 years her from
a region of feudal lords, bandits, and
nomad herdsmen to land Of huge
trade and agriculture, in many as
poets strangely like part Of the Amer
lean West.
So swiftly these changes have come
that very often old and new still clash
in oddly visual violence. Thus now
across South Manchuria. you may ride
a crack train, smooth shiny, and fast
as any Broadway limited or Frisco
fiyer-a solid train it is, of American
pullmans, drawn by big Baldwin loco
motive made in Philadelphia-yet
from it's observation car you may see
peasants pushing wheelbarrows with
sails on them-a type Of vehicle old
in China when Confucius was baby
Steam shovels made in Milwaukee
are moving mountains; Yankee trac-
tors, Jerking a fleet Of plows, scurry
across the virgin plains, past walled
hamlets where yellow men scratch
garden patches with wooden hoes, as
DIN Bible times.
Developed by the Railway.
AS early as 1889 Russia, of course
had found her way to the Amur. By
1860 she had acquired the vast Mari
time province, veritable empire
stretching from the Ussuri river tt
the Sea of. Japan and comprising al
area as big as Mexico. Across this
domain, in the 1905. she was pushing
her great Trans-Siberian railway tt
strike the sea at vladivostok. But, a!
the map shows,> the original Siberian
road, to reach vladivostok over Rus
sian territory, had to run round
about course along the Amur vale,
and via Khabarovsk.
Six hundred miles would be saved
II the Russians could build directl,
from Chita, on the Siberian road
straight southeast across Manchuris
to reioin the Trans-Siberian system
near Pogranichnaya.
On the heels, then, Of her friendl!
gesture in 1895. when Russia aidet
China to regain the area lost to .Tapal
at Shimonoseki. the Bear asked tn,
Dragon for the right to build rail
way across Manchuria; and by agree
ment signed September 8. 1896, tina
concession was granted From i
dates the rise Of modern Manchuria.
That line and that original brancl
of it, now called the South Manchurit
railway, with the economic rights the,
carried, were to do for Manchuri.