RUSSIA-CHINA: Peace

With significant unison the Soviet and Chinese governments both stopped last week their game of hurling counter charges that Chinese and Russian troops were raiding each other's positions along the Siberian-Manchurian frontier (TIME, July 29, et seq.).

What seemed to have happened was that the Soviet and Chinese ambassadors to Germany had at last come to an understanding after nearly a month of secret parleys (TIME, Aug. 5). In Berlin, both diplomats kept absolutely mum, and at Nanking the Chinese Nationalist Government would neither affirm nor deny that peace had been patched up. In Moscow, however, the Soviet Government's official news organs Pravda (Truth) and Isvestia (News) announced categorically that China had accepted Soviet terms for settlement of the present crisis-provoked when the Chinese Government deported high Soviet officials of the Chinese Eastern Railway (owned by Russia, jointly operated by China and Russia) and clapped into jail as "dangerous propagandists" numerous subordinate Soviet employes of the line (TIME, July 22).

If the Soviet announcement was not premature China and Russia have agreed that: i) The arrested Soviet employes charged with propaganda shall be released. 2) The status of joint operation by China and Russia of the Chinese Eastern Railway shall be restored on the basis of the Sino-Russian Treaty of 1924. 3) Soviet employes on the road shall in future respect an injunction against propaganda contained in the treaty. 4) Issues still outstanding shall be settled by a special plenary conference.