MANCHUKUO: Rail Movement

Romance and Empire ride the rails of Japan’s famed South Manchuria Railway. An economic spear stuck halfway up into Manchuria, the S. M. R. was the chugging juggernaut that carried Japanese troops to their scrappy victories. Soon Hsinking, the point of the S. M. R. spear, became the capital of puppet Emperor Henry Pu Yi (TIME, March 5, 1934). Beyond that point, S. M. R. trains have been unable to go on over a spur of the Chinese Eastern to the great Russianized city of Harbin because prudent Tsar Nicholas II had Russia’s rails spaced 3½ inches farther apart than Japan’s. Last week, following the purchase of the Chinese Eastern from Russia, Japanese got ready to move 150 miles of the spur’s rails so as to jab their spear clear to Harbin.

Jabber-in-Chief is Japan’s great Imperialist Railroader-Diplomat Yosuke Matsuoka, recently made president of the S. M. R. (TIME, Aug. 12). He ordered garlic issued to his 2,000 track workers “to give them strength.” Springing to action at 5 a. m. 96 gangs had the entire 150 miles of track narrowed to S. M. R. gauge in three hours. According to Mr. Matsuoka, his all-steel, air-conditioned, streamlined Asia Express will now average 63 m. p. h. up the 600-mile spear from Dairen to Harbin.