Brief Outline of Earlier Manchurian History

Note: I wrote this section in 1938. Since that time Japan has run amuck but I leave it as an impression of the state of affairs at that time.

I ARRIVED AT Dairen at an interesting time. Although it was impossible then to predict the outcome, it was obvious that opposing forces were gathering momentum which must result in a clash sooner or later. Manchuria was under the rule of the famous Chang Tso Lin, a typical ex-bandit warlord. Chang Tso Lin had made himself independent of the Chinese Government. But for the presence of the Japanese Army, he would have been absolute master of the country.

I have never been able to feel much sympathy with China over the loss of Manchuria. China lost Manchuria, not on September 18th, 1931, but at the beginning of the century. In 1896 China gave Russia the concession to build a railway across North Manchuria to connect Chita in Siberia to Vladivostock. In 1898 she handed over what is now known as the Kwantung Leased Territory, to Russia – lock, stock and barrel – and extended the railway concession to cover a line subsequently built from Harbin to Port Arthur and Talienwan. During the Boxer rebellion Russia occupied strategic points in Manchuria with her troops and afterwards, while making vague promises of withdrawal, actually refused to budge. I still remember a Punch cartoon of the period depicting the Russian bear, tail just leaving one corner of Manchuria and head coming in at another. Russia had come to stay and, though the western powers might bluster, they were powerless. Russia was also rapidly getting a stranglehold on Corea. She had a naval base at Masampo and numerous concessions at other strategic points. It was only a question of time before Russia took Corea also.

Japan then staked her existence on a war with Russia, while her ally, Great Britain, held the ring and pushed the Russians out of South Manchuria. The western powers expected that Japan, having pulled the chestnuts out of the fire, would hand them round for general consumption. On paper they were right but it was expecting a little too much of human nature. All wars are fought in defence of sacred principles, never for selfish ends, and yet, somehow, the winners generally seem to gain material benefits.