To the Editor of the "Noerm-Cmxa Dairy News."
Sig—My attention has been drawn to. your editorial of: September 18 headed "Mr. Mantell and the in. which reference is made by. name, and: in" which you with. reference" to. figures Ax. Muntell' stated he re-from me. "It: is not clear' how he (M. Ostroumoff) could obtain an accurate summary of the accounts from 1924 to 1929" when he had nothing to do. with the railway. "This is a curious statement to: make, and. its curiosity is, emphasized by the following remark in an article in the same issue of your paper. in which. the Angasta hews agency rebukes Mr. Mantell for not availing himself of published accounts of the GER: "The American adviser could, without difficulty, have chained for few do lars a big volume containing in over 157 pages the full and precise copies, not only in Russian, but also in good English, of general and detailed statements of oporatjing revenues and' expenditures, different business recounts and all statistical data pertaining to the Chinese Eastern Railway'
I do not know of any such volume ip English, but statements of accounts~are available to anyone in Russian: and Chinese, However, the figures which Mr. Mantell: published and which peculiarly and erroneously' stated were obtained as a result of exhaustive examination of the books of the GEAR. and later as a result. of.access to my English records did not come from. records of mine at all, for Mr. Mantell saw no. such records, and in any event I do not Keep records in English, but came from my memory in response to a few questions put-to me at a private dinner, at. which I was seated next to Mr, Mantell. Replying to his questions, with regard to the work of the CER. I had no idea that this conversation would, be used for the purposes of a press interview. If Mr. Mantell had stated that for some reason he wished to make a statement I would have referred him to the exact figures given in the Statistical Year-Book printed by the GER, itself. Certainly, judging by the figures given in the Year Book it would be quite clear that notwithstanding the considerable yetrly. increase of the total income of the CER, its net profit for the last few years has decreased, jin actual amount as well as. in percentage with the total income, However, to make a statement for the press of these facts and at the same time to criticize in the press the management of the CE.R;, was not at all my intention, when I answered his question" as one engineer to another, and I was very much surprised by Mr. Mantell's interview in which he referred to me without my permission for doing so, and wrote: informing Mr, Man-tell of this immediately I saw his published statement, 'Mx. Mantell has been responsible for a serious dis-service to China, for I know' better than anyone the gusto with which anything exitical of the GER, supposedly coming ized upon in no matter how correct it might be.
Hind 1 wished to publish anything about the C.E.R. T could have done so long ago. 'I had no such desire, and indeed there: was no necessity for such publication since examination of the accounts, by a competent committee such as the Chine Government would be likely to appoint at some time or other, would reveal: the conditions of operation during the past four years be they "Since Mr, Mantoll! has brought od oF bad.
my name into. this.very delicate situation it is only just to myself to state that my attitude is weill known to several responsible people in Mukden and they'can affirm that it always has been in favour of suppressing allegations against any-tone, unless evidence existed to support such allegations, and: that before allegations. are made. the evidence to support them should be in hand, Lam, ete.
Bonis V, OstrouMorr.
Mukden, Sept, 23, 1929.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.