Marbin, Aug. 21.
. The news of the arrival of 11 Soviet gunboats at the mouth of the Sungari accompanied by 10 aeroplanes, caused considerable consternation' amongst many of the Chinese merchants who have no desire to see the conflict of 1929 repeated. 'Asvat the time news was received of the presentation of a note of protest from the Soviet government regarding the manner in which Soviet citizens are being treated in Harbin, it was thought that the arrival' of *he gunboats was a sort of demonstration in support of the Note, and naa kind of reminder that the Soviet were quite ready to uphold their rights by force.
"The note of protest which has been sent by the Moscow gov ment of the Mukden authorities and which has been handed the "Soviet Consul-General, Mr. Znamensky, draws attention to the manner in which Soviet citizens fave being arrested in Harbin-with~ ut any reason, and without any accusation, handed over to. the military staff to deal with as they think fit, manscled and thrown into prison and finally passed on from one place to another, without the possibility wf their being defended It is contrary to the riy civilised country to arrest citizens of other countries and judge them by a military court, Jengaging a lawyer to m where, they, have no, chance, of and where they have not the slightest dea of what their captors fare talking abou, besides which they may "be compelled to sign statements accusing themselves of offences which they have never Jeommitted, a3 the whole of the documents' are in Chinese of which the unfortunate prisoner has no knowledge.
It is however, much more likely that the second version of the arrival of the Soviet gunboats the correct one, as there is no need for force to be used until the note has not been replied to. Two or three weeks ago merchants who have large stocks of beans in the lower reaches of the Sungari and who could not find no market for them, found buyers in Soviet Russia provided that the beans were shipped via the Amur to Habarovsk, but as there is no agreement' at present between Soviet Russia and China regarding Amur navigation, they were in a quandary how to act. Finally, they placed the matter before the district Authorities, who had the good sense to see that the sale of beans to stocks gold currency into Manchuria, so the shipments to be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.