legal Seizure of Land Department Office by Chang Teo-lin's Lieutenant in Harbin: Prompt Action by Foreign Consuls A daring attempt has bean made by Chang Tso-lin to seize the Land Department of the Chinese Eastern Railway, to the detriment of important foreign interests and in contravention of the Washington Treaty. A critical position has arisen and is being dealt with by the representatives of Great Britain, the United States, France and Japan.
In order that the projected military coup, secretly ar-yanged to take place on the Ist instant, may be more clearly understood, brief reference may be made to the history of the Chinese Eastern Railway> The building concession was granted in 1896 and, like the Canadian Pacific Railway, the course of the line was projected through entirely undeveloped land. As is customary where lines are constructed under such conditions, the grant carried with it rights to a very considerable margin of land on either side of the line, this being included by way of compensation for pioneer work and particularly in view of the fact that the line could not be expected- to yield any financial return possibly for 20 years. Naturally, this is a very important consideration in the eyes of the promoters.
In the case of the Chinese Eastern Railway, this land margin formed a great part of the site upon which the town of Harbin now stands, a part of the town which includes hospitals, schools, and a variety of other buildings. The C.E.R. made itself practically responsible for the Harbin public works and health departments," and this arrangement continued until the collapse of Russia in 1920. It was then arranged that the Chinese Government should act more or legs as trustees of the railway, and a Joint Board was formed, composed half of Russians and half of Chinese, for administrative purposes, the technical staff remaining entirely Russian. The Washington Conference confirmed this system of joint administrative control, and thus the matter stood until the end of July. Then Chang Tso-lin, having long seen the great "possibilities" in this marginal land, took the action which has caused considerable commotion in diplomatic circles. He ordered that possession should forcibly be taken of it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.