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forces in the railway area were disarmed and replaced by Chinese soldiers. The extra-territorial status of Russians was abolished. The courts were forcibly entered and closed. Russians were made amenable to Chinese law, justice and laxation. They could be arrested by the Chinese police and held by them indefinitely, as the police had large powers and were insufficiently controlled.
Special Administrative Districts joined.In 1922, the railway area which so far had been under the administration of the Company was transformed into a Special District of the Three Eastern Provinces under a Chief Administrator directly responsible to Mukden. The administration of the lands belonging to the railway was also interfered with Marshal Chang Tso-lin had practically liquidated the Russian sphere before Russia's new Government had been recognised, and private interests had suffered heavily in the process. When the Soviet Government succeeded to the Manchurian inheritance of its predecessor, the railway had been shorn of most of its privileges.
Sino-Soviet Agreement.The declarations of policy made in 1919 and 1920 by the Soviet Government with regard to China implied a complete relinquishment of the special rights which the Imperial Government had acquired in China, notably those acquired in North Manchuria.
Agreement of 1924.In accordance with this policy, the Soviet Government agreed to the regularisation of the fait accompli by a new agreement. By the Sino-Russian Agreement of May 31st, 1924, the Chinese Eastern Railway became a purely commercial concern under joint management, in which China also acquired a financial interest. The Government of the U.S.S.R. had, however, the right of appointing the General Manager (who exercises extensive and ill-defined powers) and, under the Agreement, the Government of the U.S.S.R. exercised a preponderant influence in the affairs of the railway and was able to retain the essential parts of its economic interests in North Manchuria. As mentioned above, the Agreement of May 1924, concluded with the Chinese Government at Peking, was not accepted by Marshal Chang Tso-lin, who insisted on a separate Agreement being concluded with himself. This Agreement, signed in September 1924, was almost identical in its terms, but by it the lease of the railway was shortened from eighty to sixty years.
Chang Tso-lin's aggressive policy against the interests of the U.S.S.R.This Agreement did not inaugurate a period of friendly relations between the U.S.S.R. and the administration of Marshal Chang Tso-lin in Manchuria. The convening of the conference which was to deal with the many questions left unsettled in the two Agreements of 1924 was postponed on various pretexts. On two occasions, in 1925 and 1926, the General Manager of the Chinese Eastern Railway refused to transport troops of the Marshal on the railway. The second incident led to the arrest of the General Manager and to an ultimatum from the U.S.S.R. (January 23rd, 1926). Nor were these isolated incidents. Nevertheless, the Chinese authorities persisted in a policy which was directed against Russian interests and which was resented both by the Government of the U.S.S.R. and by the White Russians.
Final efforts of China to liquidate Soviet influence in Manchuria, 1929.After the adherence of Manchuria to the Nanking Government, nationalist spirit increased in strength, and the efforts of the U.S.S.R. to maintain predominating control over the railway were, more than ever before, resented. In May 1929, an attempt was made to liquidate the last remnants of the Russian sphere of interest. The attack started with a raid on the Soviet consulates at various places by the Chinese police, who made many arrests and claimed to have found evidence proving that a Communist revolution was being plotted by employees of the Soviet Government and of the Chinese Eastern Railway. In July, the telegraph and telephone systems of the railway were seized, and many important Soviet organisations and enterprises were forcibly closed down. Finally, the Soviet Manager of the railway was requested to hand over the management to a Chinese