THE FAR EASTERN CRISIS



     (2) North Manchuria Railway (Chinese Eastern Railway)
           (Hsinking-Harbin-Tsitsihar Station).
     (3) Manchoukuo Government Railways (Tsitsihar-Peian-Har-
          bin and Hsinking-Kirin-Tunhua-Tumen).
     (4) Chosen Government Railways (Tumen-Seishin-Keijo-
          Fusan).
  The South Manchuria Railway was an excellent line in every
respect and was the only one in condition to support heavy, high
speed traffic.
  The North Manchuria Railway was obviously run down. Trains
ran slowly over a fair roadbed.
  The Manchoukuo Government Railways were unexpectedly good.
The rolling stock was in good condition, one first class train and one
mixed passenger and freight train ran in each direction, schedules
were adhered to strictly, stops were brief, roadbed was fair to good,
speed was slow. No double tracking was seen. On the Tsitsihar-
Peian-Harbin line there was a single siding at every station, or about
every 13 kms., and two or more sidings at the nine most important
stations. On the Hsinking-Kirin-Tumen line stations were about
12 kms. apart, all had at least one siding and most had two or more
sidings. Sidings seemed to be uniformly about 500 or 600 yards long.
On the older sections much work had been done recently improving
bridges and relocating the line to decrease grades and elimiate curves.
On the Tsitsihar-Peian-Harbin line, passing through absolutely flat
and gently rolling rich farm land, sand ballast was used, while from
Hsinking eastward to Tumen ballast was of gravel or, to a lesser
extent, crushed rock. The latter line is designed to carry heavier
traffic than the former.
  Every wooden bridge and other bridges of importance are protected
by one or two sand bag, brick, or concrete pill boxes. All trains carry
armed railway police and detachments from special railway guard
battalions. On the South Manchuria Railway police and guards are
Japanese; on the North Manchuria Railway police are half -Russian
and half Manchoukuo, military guards Japanese and Manchoukuo;
and on the Manchoukuo Government Railways police and guards are
both part Japanese,-part Manchoukuo. Police averaged about 10 men
per train. Guards vary in strength from about 10 men on quiet lines
to at least 20 men in disturbed areas. On the Hsinking-Tumen line,
only, every train, both passenger and freight, includes an armored box
car. Armored trains, consisting of a locomotive, with steam up and
five or six armored cars, were distributed along the Manchoukuo Gov-
ernment Railways at intervals of about 100 kms. None were noted
elsewhere.
  g. The new ports of Seishin and Rashin in northeastern Chosen, on
the most direct line between Japan and Manchoukuo, were inspected.
At Seishin the breakwater of concrete blocks was complete in outline
and work was in progress placing the top layer of blocks. A stone and
concrete quay has space for five ships of about 3,000 tons each. Six
fireproof warehouses have been completed (five for which space is
available on the waterfront and one in a parallel line), at least one more
in a parallel line is under construction and space is available between
tracks for several additional ones. The tracks indicate that a total
of about 10 warehouses in two lines will be built. Double tracks ex-



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