861.77 Chinese Eastern/295
Statement by the Soviet Vice Commissar for Foreign Affairs (Karakhan) on August 15, 192952
As a result of the violent actions committed by the Chinese authorities with respect of the Chinese Eastern Railway and its Soviet personnel, the road has got into a most serious state, a state close to complete ruin. The mass dismissal of employees and hands; the filling of responsible posts with accidental, incompetent, persons; the control and use of the road by the military authorities, who de facto dispose of the locomotives and the other rolling stock and also of the property and receipts of the road; have led to the complete disruption of all the business of the Chinese Eastern Railway.
We have repeatedly warned both the Nanking and the Mukden Governments of the grave consequences of the unparalleled violations, which they have committed, of the agreements of 1924 between the U. S. S. R. and China, which determined the status of the road. Naturally we consider the Nanking and Mukden Governments wholly and entirely responsible for all the material damage which is the result of the seizure of the road and the arbitrary course of the Chinese authorities and the Russian whiteguardists, with all the consequences ensuing from this position.
[Page 278]At the same time, we must warn all foreign Governments, as well as all persons and institutions who might have some sort of business or other with the Chinese Eastern Railway that the government of the U. S. S. R. will not acknowledge a single deal consummated with respect of the road by the Chinese authorities or the personnel appointed by them, nor a single obligation assumed by them in the name of this road, after the seizure of the Chinese Eastern Railway by the Chinese authorities.
- Translation from text printed in the Moscow Izvestia, No. 187, August 16, 1929; copy transmitted to the Department by the Chargé in Latvia in his despatch No. 6349, August 20; received September 3, 1929.↩