861.77 Chinese Eastern/1324: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 28—1:45 p.m.]
389. Following telegram has been received from the Consul General at Harbin.
“August 27, 4 p.m. Following interruption of the negotiations in Tokyo regarding the sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway some 70 Soviet employees of the railway, consisting mainly of important station agents and traffic employees on the eastern section, have been arrested by Manchurian authorities on the chargé of sabotage and plots against the “Manchukuo” government.
The Soviet-Chinese company general managers are at a deadlock over the replacement of some of the arrested employees and report that the matter has been referred to their respective Governments. There is considerable tenseness between the Manchurian and Soviet officials of the Chinese Eastern Railway here on account of the arrests. The arrested employees were men very important to the actual operation of the railway according to what the Soviet manager Mr. Rudy has told me. Today the Manchurian board president, Mr. Li Shao-ken, laughingty remarked to me that serious operating difficulties in the railway usually followed interruptions in negotiations with respect to the railway’s sale.[”]