Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-04
Russian Trade in Manchuria.

Information lately received from
Manchuria indicates that the Soviet
government of Russia is making a
strong bid for trade in that region that
if successful will seriously affect Amer
lean, Japanese and other exporters who
have been finding a market in the
| three eastern provinces" of China. The
Manchurian market, however, is not
the only one affected, for if the Rus
sian drive for trade there succeeds and
if the five-year program is carried
through satisfactorily, China proper
will be the next field of operations, to
the very serious depletion of the mar
ket to other nations.
In the past few months 1t appears
there has been decided increase in the
quantity and variety of Soviet goods
in Manchuria through newly established
commercial agencies. These are almost
al cheap wares. but good for their
prices. 1t is believed that if the pres
ent situation in MSnchuria furnishes an
example of what Soviet Russia may be
able to do when she shall have COM
pleted her ambitious industrial program,
the foreign merchants in Manchuria are
likely to find themselves in the most seri-
Gus competition they have yet encoun-
tered. For example, Soviet oil, which
heretofore has been selling few cents
lower than American and British prices,
is to be cut considerably below through
a reduction of freight rates on the
Chinese Eastern Railway, which the
Russians practically control.
Manchuria is cheap market, for
the buying power of the people is low,
and the cheap goods of Russia make
strong bid. These goods are produced
at starvation wages in Russia, and yet
the Soviet reply to the charge of dump
ing" in Manchuria is that the goods are
actually being sold at profit. And here
comes the strange fact that the Soviet
goods which are being sold now cheaply
in Manchuria sell at much higher prices
in Russia and Siberia. In fact, many
Of the goods of this class cannot be
bought at all in Soviet Russia. Russians
arriving from European Russia find in
Hardin, for example, goods which they
are not able to buy at home or in Vlad-
ivostok. 1t is related that smuggling
activity has increased along the Sibe-
rian-Ma ncilurian border, where Russian
goods which have been legally exported
to Manchuria on payment of small
hoiV
gled back into Soviet Russia, where
they bring much higher prices than
those for which they can be legally
bought in Manchuria.
This is a picture which should be
studied thoughtfully by those who do
not regard with seriousness the menace
of Russian goods produced by slave
labor or by miserably paid free labor.
If labor can be said to be free in that
state-competing in the world markets.
If the five-year program now under
way of development succeeds, the sit
uation that exists in Manchuria may
extend throughout the range of inter-
national trade. unless barriers are erect
SN' 4" 40 AoPoAO CO IiidC, dlAA4oue do bIey
are over the present situation in Man
churia, foreign importers and traders
there are drawing some comfort from
the belief that Russian workmen and
producers of raw materials will not be
willing to continue forever to live in
virtual serfdom and that the, time is
likely to come, perhaps soon, when the
discomfort of the Russian masses will
either overthrow the Soviet government
or force it to allow much higher stand
ards Of living than are now obtaining.
in which case the Soviet goods will not
furnish such dangerous competition.