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(4) Exterritoriality.
41. Cases arising out of exterritoriality have been so fully reported by this office and the Harbin Consulate-General that only a brief summary is given here. The manager of the Chartered Bank in Harbin was summoned to attend an examination by the police in connexion with illegal exchange transactions which he had unwittingly allowed to take place. The police rejected the protests of the acting consul-general, but declared that the manager had voluntarily submitted to examination, and, since no further action was taken by them against the manager, the incident closed. Mr. Kabalkin, a British subject, was summoned to answer a civil claim by the Tsitsihar local court. He resisted the jurisdiction of the court, which entered judgment against him in absence. Up to the present no attempt has been made to collect the amount of damages from him. A civil action against Dr. Black, a British medical missionary in Lungchingtsun, was settled out of court.
42. Indirectly connected with the abrogation of exterritoriality is the question of the attitude of the Manchukuo Government towards perpetual leases which is now beginning to call for attention.
VI. ASSIMILATION OF RACES.
43. The population of Manchukuo is supposed to be about 35 million, of whom roughly 1 million are aliens. The bulk of the native population is Chinese, but there is a large Mongol element of about 2 million in the Hsing An provinces in the west. Of the aliens, Koreans are predominant, amounting to 750,000; next come the Japanese with some 125,000, and, finally, "foreigners," of whom the Russians are most numerous.
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44. The term Chinese was used loosely it would be more correct to speak of "Chinese and "Manchus." Apart, then, from the "foreigners, we have five races: Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, Japanese and Koreans; the problem of the Administration is their assimilation. The distinction between "Chinese" and "Manchus" has practically disappeared, as there is no longer a linguistic or clearly recognisable ethnic difference between the two, and, though the authorities persistently talk of "Manchus" and the "Manchu" language, it is convenient to group them as Chinese, leaving four races of widely differing characteristics to be assimilated. That they will ever fuse is unbelievable. The most that could be hoped for is that they should live side by side in amity. Even this is asking a great deal. Wild-beast trainers sometimes exhibit predatory animals caged side by side with their natural prey and euphemistically describe the group as a happy family, but no one believes that hunter and hunted have really changed their natures. Under a strong hand the four races may be trained to lay aside their differences, but that they will ever become a happy family may be doubted.
45. The more limited objective is attainable. The Chinese merchant, the Chinese farmer, the Korean farmer and the wandering Mongol, each asks only to be left to his own devices. They are accustomed to autocratic government, and, provided they are not worked on by agitators, they display no interest in political questions. Practical measures to improve the conditions of living are more valuable to them than theories of government. The Chinese are, of course, the most numerous. Given any sort of opportunity the Chinese merchant can give points and a beating to most other traders. The Chinese farmer has qualities of endurance that are unrivalled. The average Korean farmer is also docile and hard-working. None of these elements, therefore, presents any acute problem.
46. The Mongol, who is by nature a nomad and impatient of restraint, requires more careful treatment, but he lives almost entirely in the west, which has been divided into new provinces, in the administration of which a certain proportion of Mongols is employed. The Mongol, however, shows few signs of adapting himself to modern conditions. Fifty years ago Inner Mongolia reached to within a few miles of the present Harbin and Hsinking. Since then the political frontier has receded 200 or 300 miles under the peaceful penetration of
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