Changchun, Mar, 1 Manchoukug to-day formally an+ nounced that it was withholding pays ment of the last instalment on the Soviet share of the former Chinese Eastern Railway.
'The action, a spokesman for the Government declared, was taken in view of the Soviet failure to pay about '¥,5,500,000 for telegraph tolls, freight rates and delinquent. taxes. 'The final instalment palls due on March 23 Formal' representations on the matter were made to the Soviet Government yesterday by the Manchoukuo Foreign Ofce through the Soviet Consul in Harbin, The agreement for the transfer of the Soviet share in the railway, {0 Manchoukuo was initialled in Tokyo fon March 11, 1935. The former Nanking Government protested the sale as "illegal and without binding force on China,"—Domel.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.