Show I MANCI 1 MANCHURIA w At l g p 9 a t a Y r x i M X r vi v- v Q l i J t fl f-fl- f H Ht t JA- JA Station on the South Railway Prepared d by the National Geographic Society Washington D. D C. C T IS an on unusual year ear In which IT Manchuria does not produce an nn upset In Far Eastern affairs In 1929 1020 there was friction between Chinese and Russians over the management management man man- of ot the Chinese Eastern railway of northern Manchuria Manchuria- friction that brought a threat of war Now 1 Manchuria Is the scene of grave difficulties between Japanese Japan Japan- ese and Chinese and again a railway railway rail rail- way Is at the bottom of the trouble This time It Is the South Manchuria Manchu Manchu- ria railway owned and operated By oy Bya oya a Japanese corporation In a struggle struggle struggle gle centering around the railroad property near Mukden capital of ot Manchuria both Chinese and Japanese Japanese Jap Jap- anese lives have aye been lost The world has grown gro to expect excitement from Manchuria for in that country as in Eg Egypt pt and Mexico Mex Mex- I ico Igo It seems that drama never dies From hereabouts before Columbus was born rode a Mongol horde to conquer Asia and harass Europe From here scaling the Great Wall Wan which timid Chinese had raised against them came giant to oust the dings and found a n new newdy dy dynasty asty at nt Pe Peking Crossing the sea In clumsy Junks 1200 years ago the same old Man Man- chus took tiger and leopard skins ermine and wild ginseng to trade with Japan for silks and brocades Later when the world near empire of Kublal Kublai Khan roll rolled d from the Yalu to the Danube a Mongol fleet of a thousand ships sailed against the shoguns only to be smashed by Gods Wind on the tile coast of Ky Here through turbulent years three ancient empires met the met the Bear the Dragon and the Rising I Sun un Their heir struggles struggle shook the earth Korea succumbed absorbed by the Rising Sun th the Dragon mothered Manchuria War mangled mangled man man- the Bear and to the north rose rosean rosean rosean an evanescent Far Eastern rep republic bUc Two Great Events Yet In all Its repertoire of high adventure adventure political political martial and economic two economic two events loom largest In the tho stirring story of Manchuria They sway not only the destiny of ancient Manchuria Itself but they affect the fortunes and the fu future ure of Japan China and Russia These events e are the coming of the Rus Rus- built sian-built railways s and the immigration ImI- ImI gration graton of millions of Chinese farm ers erg In the last three decades these forces railways and Immigrants have haye Jumped Manchuria ahead by 1000 years years moved rao ed her from a region region re re- re- re gion of feudal lords bandits and andI I nomad herdsmen to o a I land nd of huge trade rade and nd agriculture In many aspects aspects aspects as as- strangely like part of ot the American West So swiftly these changes have come that very often old and new still sUll clash In oddly visual violence Thus now across South Manchuria you yon may ride a crack train smooth shiny and fast as any Broadway lImited or Frisco flyer flyer-a er a a solid soUd train It ft Is of ot American pullmans pullmans' drawn by a big Baldwin locomotive made In yet Philadelphia yet from Its observation car you man see peasants peasants peas peas- ants pushing wheelbarrows with sails sans on them them them-a a type of vehicle old oldIn oldin in n China when Confucius was a baby Steam shovels sho made In n kee see are moving mountains Yankee tractors Jerking a fleet of ot plows scurry across the virgin Irgin plains past walled hamlets where yellow men scratch garden patches with wooden hoes as ns In Bible times Developed by the Railway As early as 1039 Russia of ot course had found her way to the Amur By 1861 she had acquired the vast ost Marl Marl- time province pro a veritable empire stretching g from the river to eJ Sen i of t i Japan and comprising an fas' fas IS l M A cross Across this sl slip t I push push- I In Ing Tier gt eat t. t ns 1 h rl 1 I ra I f way to the sea 1 stok stoic But nut as ns the map shows shon's the I original Siberian road to reach Vladivostok over Russian territory had bad to run a roundabout course along the Amur valley alley and via Six hundred miles would be saved It If the Russians could build directly from Chita on the Siberian road straight southeast across Manchuria Manchuria Man Man- churia churla to rejoin the Trans Siberian 8 system stem near On the heels then of her friendly gesture In 1893 1895 IS when Russia aided Chinn to regain the area lost to Japan at the Bear asked the Dragon for the right to build bund a railway across Manchuria and by agreement signed Septem ber 8 S. S 1890 1800 that concession n was granted From It t dates the rise of modern Manchuria That line and that original branch of It now called the South Manchuria Manchu n ria a railway with the economic rights they carried were to do for Manchuria what hat the Union Pacific did for the American West All over oyer the civilized world newspaper readers know this famous line now a as the Chinese Eastern railway By the terms of the original inal agreement signed between China and the Russo Chinese bank later the Russo bank It was to be a Joint enterprise The czars czar's engineers built It and the RussIans Russians Russians Rus Rus- had charge of ot Its shops maintenance maintenance maintenance main main- and technical operations I but Chinese were supposed to share equally with Russian directors In Its general management When completed completed com com- in June 1903 1003 it had cost in 10 excess of Of this cost China supplied about and shared proportionately In Its profits Towns Became Busy Cities When finished the tile main line of the Chinese Eastern ran from Its terminus at nt on the northwest northwest north north- west border of Manchuria to Po Po- naya on the eastern boundary bound bound- ary From Harbin now a n busy Important Important Important Im Im- city and then a mere fishing village on the river n a branch line was dropped south to Dalny now Dairen on the Bay of ot Korea Most of ot this section or that part from Changchun south to Dairen Is now nov known as ns the South railway Dalny was was literally a magic city Built quickly by Imperial command It was the talk of the Far East On this barren then empty point of ro rocks en engineers architects r cli and workers of the the czar 1 sp t r millions trillions trillions' of ot of rubles rubles' to build wh wharves streets business blocks and houses for 91 a population yet Set to come A magnificent cent vision that the that the vision of ot a n great seaport terminus of a mile ral railway tying Europe to the Orient How How observers laughed at this amazing spectacle vast spectacle vast trainloads of tools food tents work animals scrapers and building material being being being be be- ing dumped on a rocky shore of faraway far tar away uway Asia to build a a. a city where there were no people e Yet today Dalny alny Dairen Is the second or third Important seaport on all the China coast I 1 In Manchuria something somethIng something some some- thing Is always happening I 1 It happened again In 1904 1004 when Japan fought Russia RussIn One saw the holes In the armored sides of escaping escaping ing Russian battleships holes battleships holes big enough to lead cows through holes made by Togo's guns In strait Port Arthur the Impregnable Impregnable fell feU ancient Mukden en echoed and shook under the heaviest gunfire gun fire Asia had ever known Kuropatkin lost lost and and President Roosevelt mediated In the peace conference at Portsmouth N N. H. H Russia ceded to Japan her lease lense on the peninsula and possession posses posses- sion slon on t the le South Manchuria railway railway railway rail rail- raili i way as far north as ns Changchun I IChino China Chino confirmed this and later extended extended ex ex- tended Japans Japan's lease for fora la n period of 99 DO years But Bat B t in Manchuria drama never dies Tragedy stark and terrible stalked across the East when Ira Im- Russia RussIn collapsed Refugees by the thousands Illg the horrors of postwar political chaos In Siberia SI Si- berla beria came east to beg borrow horrow or starve stane In neutral ManchurIan towns After Russia's Collapse In this chaos the Allies to took k over the operations of ot the Chinese East Enst- ern em railway From their b base se a nt at Vladivostok they needed It to move mt men n and supplies An American engineer en en- famed fumed for tor his work on the Panama canal seas was In fn charge Later the tube newly formed Soviet government go took tools Imperial Russia's old place ns its ler In 19 1924 4 byra by ra new n 1 wj Te f p i enjoyed jE S a an equal share hure hurc vL t ts iii uthe the he profits of f the ra railway 11 It Sr e too that China should govern go the the railway zone Inhabited ln w iT many thousand whites and that each nation In the compact should refrain from propaganda against the theother's theother's theother's others other's social and political systems That stripped of ot details Is the brief story of ot the now famous Chinese Chi Clil Chinese nese Eastern railway up to June 11 1929 1021 when It t was seized by the Chi nese Its Us Russian personnel arrested arrest arrest- t. t ed cd causing clouds of war once more to loom over this sfa stage c of ot so many runny historic struggles This threat nt of war was later removed remo when Chinese Chi Chinese nese nese ind Russians again agreed to a s Joint of ot the railway |