Chinese Reply to Allegations of Bad Treatment Mukden, Sept. 22.
Mr. ¥. D. Shen, Chairman of the Bureau for Public Information, made a statement to Reuter's representative regarding what he described as "the strange attitude of the Soviet Government with regard to the Russian prisoners interned in Harbin". This statement may be taken as representing the views of the Chinese authorities here.
Mr. Sken said:—"When China took over the management of the Chinete Eastern Railway by apting the Chinese sub-manager to act as general manager of the railway, all the Hossian employes continued to perform their duties formerly. On July 17, however, Mx, Earakban issued an order all of these employees to quit the service. The order was obeyed by a great number of them, but they not content with' resigning their positions; they also began sabotage on a large scale, trying to destroy the railway. and' to lise tard public peace. It, therefore, became necessary for the Chinese Government to arrest these people. Tais was only a simple precautionary act of self-preservation, It was never intended to keep them prisoners for a long time: on the contrary, the Chinese Government has done its very best to repatriate them, Refused Entrance to Russia "The German Consul in Harbin, Dr. Hansel, on August 20, went specially to Manchou to arrange for their transportation to Russia. Instead of meeting a train for thei accommodation, he only saw Soviet armoured train firing at the Chinese lines. The Soviet Government, furthermore, flatly refused to low these prisoners, its own citizens, to enter Russia, claiming that they were reactionaries, "The reason for this strange altitude is evidently twofold. In the first place, if these prisoners remain interned in China, the Soviet Government will always have an excuse to tell the world exaggerated stories about the horrible sufferings of these poor people. Secondly, the Soviet Government evidently wante them to remain in China in order that they may continue their des tractive work when they are event ually liberated. The truth abou the alleged ill-treatment of the Russian prisoners in Harbin has been told many times by impartial eye-witnesses such as the German Consul and several foreign newspaper correspondents. According to them the prisoners restive ahandait food and reasonably com= fortable quarters, in striking contrast to the daily half pound of bread and nothing else, given to the Chinese prisoners in Russia, 'A Little Gentle Sarcasm "But the Proletarian Government of Russia evidently wants its fellow proletarian citizens, imprisoned for eritsinal offences in China, to sleep on elder down beds and to be fed on cavinre and pécho Melbs Madame Borodin might tell Moscow Government about the torvibie hardships and privations' she was subject to when imprison ed? by the Chinese Government in the Grand Hotel de Pekin, Untor~ tunately this hotel ie not big enough to accommodate all the Russian prisoners in Harbin, and they have, therefore, to be content with som what more modest quarters."
"The attitude of the Soviet Government," concluded Mr. Shen, "is most unreasonable. It compli about the ill-treatment of the Rus sian prisoners—theso charges of ill-treatment have been proved to be unfounded—and at the sime time it refuses to allow these sume prisoners to enter Russia.'—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.