Foreign News: Plebiscite & Plunder

In Outer Mongolia, said Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek at a Chungking press conference, a plebiscite was under way. It was being conducted under the terms of the Sino-Russian treaty (TIME, Sept. 3), which gave Outer Mongolia’s one million Soviet-oriented, cattle-raising tribesmen the right to vote for fusion with China, or for autonomy.

Chungking had several observers at the polls. But long before the results were in, the Central Government wrote off its claim to nominal sovereignty. Generalissimo Chiang’s regime prepared to establish diplomatic relations with Premier Marshal Choibalsan’s “independent,” Sovietized Republic of Outer Mongolia. This week Moscow reported a “unanimous” vote for “independence” by the Mongolians. All voters had to sign their ballots.

Chungking’s Foreign Minister, Dr. Wang Shih-chieh, announced that the Red Army was keeping Stalin’s treaty promise and withdrawing from Manchuria. The evacuation might be completed by November’s end; a trickle of Central Government officials was already moving in.

One aspect of the Red Army’s occupation held great import for China’s economic future. What, if anything, had the Russians done to the tremendous industrial plant developed by the Japanese in Manchuria?

To Shanghai came eyewitness answers: the Russians were stripping Manchuria of its industrial plant. In no position to quarrel with their Red neighbor, the Chinese would have to revise their plans to make Manchuria a great foundry of national reconstruction.