Reds, War & Mongols

Stubborn Josef Stalin was still trying to avoid last week the mistake that crippled Imperial Russia--war with Japan. But events darkly occurring in Manchuria kept all the Russias on the qui vive.

Japan three weeks ago occupied Harbin, the recognized "capital" of the "Russian sphere of influence in North Manchuria" (TIME, Feb. 22). Paradoxically, although the Chinese Eastern Railway running through Harbin is under Soviet management, the city itself swarms with at least 25,000 "White Russians" (anti-Soviet). No sooner did Japanese take over Harbin than White Russian Generals Mandriken and Modestov began dickering for arms, promising to use them in a White Russian offensive to capture Vladivostok.

Vladivostok is the only decent port which the Soviet Union has in Eastern Asia, and it is only 490 miles from Harbin. Naturally the mustache of Soviet Commander Vassili Constantinovitch Blucher. Commander-in-chief of the Soviet Far Eastern Army, began to bristle. Five thousand miles from Dictator Stalin, in Khabarovsk, Siberia (which is only 480 miles from Vladivostok) bristling Commander Blucher shouted at his Red Soldiers: "We won't permit any White Guard imperialistic rascals to tread upon our socialistic soil with their dirty feet! If any one is thinking of stretching forth his dirty paws toward our coal, forests or other riches, then let it be understood that for every ton of coal, every cord of wood, every tractor, we will fight!"

Sword-handy Commander Blucher spoke on the 14th anniversary of the Red Army. Not only at Khabarovsk but all over Russia, militant spirits ran high. Theatres and opera houses were packed with Red soldiers and Red commanders ("officers" have been abolished) who entered free, loudly cheered by passersby. But the great day was not a holiday for Soviet civilians--Josef Stalin saw to that, and Soviet newsorgans dared print nothing stronger than the Dictator's slogan: "We do not want a single inch of foreign soil but we will not give up a single inch of our own."

In Moscow the Commissar for War, famed Klimentiy ("Klim") Voroshilov, supposed to have been hand-picked by Stalin, issued to the excited Red Army this adroit but cautious order of the day:

"Comrades! Soldiers! White Guards, assisted by separate bands of imperialists, are openly making plans to seize the Soviet interests in the Far East, but the peace policy of the Soviet Government remains unshakable and the Soviet will pursue it with the utmost persistence and will fight to the end in the cause of peace."

Great Union. In Manchuria itself, apart from the dark doings at Harbin, the situation was ludicrous. Fortnight ago the new independent state supposed to consist of all Manchuria and part of Mongolia was named Ankuo or "Land of Peace." Almost every day last week it was reported to have a new name, but "Daido" meaning "Great Union" seemed to be the favorite.

Purely a Japanese setup, this new state with its "government" of heavily bribed Chinese Generals still proposed last week to set up its capital at Changchun; and weak-eyed Mr. Henry Pu Yi (ex-Emperor of China) was still to be "Head of the Great Union." But nobody knew (after three weeks of Japanese indecision) whether it would be a Republic or a Monarchy.

Ghenghis' Birthplace. In an irate manifesto the Chinese Government, such as it is, proclaimed Manchuria indissolubly part of China. But some of the Mongol Princes seemed to like the idea of a "Great Union" separate from China. Last week a Hearst correspondent, venturing into what he said was the part of Mongolia where Ghenghis Khan was born, entered the Palace of Prince Fulin and approached a Buddha-like personage who sat cross-legged on the palace floor smoking a priceless jade pipe. This was the "High Adviser" to Prince Fulin. He said nothing, continued to smoke.

Cried Prince Fulin to the Hearstman: "We have been a republic since the year 1021 A. D. but every man, woman and child among the Mongols will support enthusiastically the movement to create an Empire of our Homeland!"

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