Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 171, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1920 — Jap High Hand in Manchuria [ARTICLE]

Jap High Hand in Manchuria

they Are No Longer Restrained by Allies, Says Chinese Newspaper. CALLS IT “REICH OF TERROR” ---------v Semenoff Troops Assisting the Japanese Terrorize Inhabitants of Khailar—Seem Bent on Brew* Ing Trouble, Says Paper. Peking, China. —Reports reaching here indicate that the Japanese are carrying things with a high hand in Manchuria now that the other troops of the allies are virtually out of the country. The Peking and Tientsin Times has received from its correspondents reports which it presents under the heading “Reign of Terror in Manchuria.’’ It says that at Imanpo two Russian workmen, who made some disparaging remarks about the Japanese emperor in talking to a Japanese soldier in the Russian railway hospital, were seized by Japanese soldiers and “summarily shot on the spot.” At Harbin, the newspaper says, Japanese sentries stationed on a bridge threw one Russian off the bridge, breaking his collar bone, and stabbed another In the face a bayonet when the Russians Insisted upon crossing the bridge. The Japanese are reported by the. newspaper to have taken full possession of Khailar qnd arrested there 11 Russian workers and handed them over to the representative of General Semenoff and the Times adds that by this time “no doubt they have been shot by Baron Unger Steinberg.” Local Population Terrorized. The Japanese are declared to have brought to Khailar and armed 500 Semenoff troops, who are reported to be actively assisting the Japanese and

helping to terrorize the local popu lation. The Times predicts that similar Incidents are likely to increase at the Japanese hold on the Russian far east becdmes more intense, and states that the Japanese garrison at Harbin is to be increased by 1,000 more men. This re-enforcement is declared by the paper to be absolutely unnecessary “as the Ghlnese troops stationed there are sufficient to maintain order.” The situation along the Chinese Eastern railway was characterized by the Times correspondent as very critical. He' stated that the Japanese military authorities had decided to place their own guards and sentries along the whole stretch of the railway, which crosses Upper Manchuria, because they were about to send troop trains and military supplies along that railway and were afraid the Russian railway workers, who were opposed to Japanese Intervention, might try to stop the Japanese from carrying out their plans. “The Japanese seem bent upon brewing trouble among the Russian population residing Inside the railway area by giving them a series of principles so as to bring .about open strife which

will give them an excuse to take determined action even to the seizing and working of the Chinese Eastern,” wrote the correspondent. The correspondent admitted that the Japanese had the right to send troops over the railway to protect the frontiers against Invasion, but that this did not confer the right to occupy settlements along the line, or interfere with the rights of local populations. He declared that the purpose of the Japanese to seize control of the railway called for an immediate protest on the part of the allies. Forced to Work at Bayonet Point. In Nikolsk, he reported, the railway workers having gone on strike, Japanese soldiers were rounding them up and forcing them at thfe point of the bayonet to do the work of laborers. Since the foregoing situation was described, Information has been made public In Moscow that Chinese and Russian military commissioners In conference at Verkhne-Udlnsk, TransBaikalla, have reached an agreement under which “inherent rights of the Russian soviet government In the Eastern Manchurian railway were recognized and the Chinese guaranteed to withdraw their troops from along the railway lines.” It was pointed out that China’s agreement that the Russians should retain possession of Its road deprived the Japanese of one of their best excuses for keeping troops on It.