The Soviet discharged an ultimatum at him, but in the
end refrained from sending troops and agreed to carry his soldiers free of charge if the railway officials were released. The crisis was thus resolved. But what an irony it all is ! Russian Imperial ambitions in Man- churia more than twenty years ago were denounced by the progressives of Russia, and undoubtedly those ambitions were one of the causes of unrest which eventu- ally boiled over in the Russian revolution. For months past the Soviet has been cynically making use of the Imperial legacy in Manchuria instead of repudiating such tainted property—as it ought to call it. Unable to hit at the Western Powers directly, the Soviet has been using China_ as the only place where it can maliciously damage them. For this purpose it has been abetting Chinese • nationalism and directing it against Europe. It has abandoned its own extra-territorial rights, but in Man- churia, at least, it acts as though they were of full effect. At last the Chinese in their nationalist enthusiasm are beginning to turn against the Bolshevists as being in a ' class with all other foreigners. We never thought that there was the least affinity between Chinese habits of thought and Bolshevism, but the split is coming sooner than we expected.
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