Aug. 11.
THE seizure of the land office of the Chinese Eastern Railway by the local Chinese military, of which a repert—appears on another page, will, we ~bope, prove more awkward for & the Chinese themselves thong for anyone else. But if it had not been for the remarkably prompt action of Mr. Yamanouchi, the Japanese Consul, Mr. H. Phillips, the British, Mr. Hanson, the American, and M. Lépissier, -the -Erench, the mischief might have {Jen almost _irretrievable. General Chang Huan-siang, - who has seized the land office der Mukden's _orders,..; ed that he meant to take the title deeds by force. Whereupon the four consuls put their seals on the safe. Subsequently on two occasions General "Chang met the Consular Body by invitation to explain his action, but nothing- coherent could be got out of him, he taking up all the time of the meeting with vague denunciations of the Russian management of the line—which are quite inconsistent, by the way, with what Dr. Wang; the Chinese Chairman of the Board, wrote in these columns last February. He also asserted that the railway owned more land than it needed and he meant to take back the surplus. On this there are two opinions. It. appears to be thought in Harbin that the Chinese realize they have gone~ too far and would be glad of a way out. But by the last news they are still in possession of the C. E. R. land office although the Russian head of the department, Mr. Gondatti, is said to be transacting business there: Not the least interesting part of the story is that for the first time the Soviet delegate in Peking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.