50
V
RUSSIA AND ENGLAND IN THE FAR EA T.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[January 27, 1900.
peace, and the strange and contradictory fast | dreary gusts of January and February · his that while preaching peace to others Russianblest generals was succeeded by a wikler is herself on every side arming, and that all man who desired to emancipate as far as her industual enterprises eventually point they could, holy Russia from the grip of the This semi-conscious antagonism is | Ice-king, and towards this end Russian to war. well seen in the case of the Siberian Rail- diplomacy has year by year been more and more directed. The British Government way, regarding which it is difficult to decide whether merely warlike, political or in-lus and British people were generous nud astute trial motives were predominant. The rail- enough to see in this movement but the way already has enabled Russin to fill her fulfilment of a natural and even laulable When Mr. A. J. BALFOUR in eastern territories with troops and Primorsk ambition. and Kwantung bristle with soldiery. It is certain that no Power had ever en- tertained
(Daily Press, 24th January.) Englishmen are, perhaps, too apt to place the worst constraction on everything done by Russia, and in contrasting the promises of her statesmon with the performances of her officials to attribute the discrepancy to innate bad faith. It is not to be denied that Russia has, on many occasions openly and deliberately broken faith, and it is unfortunately the case that Russia's diplomacy has come to be a syno- nym for untruth and prevarication, and yet it may be, and we believe frequently 8 the case, that Russia herself has been the de- ceived party; that she has set the ball roll-being nor dignity of Russia was advanced ing down hill with the best of intentions, by these bloated preparations. It is in li- but the increased velocity has proved too
citive at her present transitive state that they powerful for her weak control; and the should have been found necessary, and their object started in a safe or even Inndable existence is harmful to Russin, in that they direction, has surmounted its track, and | hamper and hinder her possession of these rushed as a devouring avalanche over her territories which really contain some of the more civilised neighbours. Russia, in fact, finest and richest portious of the earth. has not yet learned pence; she is still in hi What object seen from any civilised point of view bus Rusia, for instance, in over- stage of her development when war is her natural condition, and it is doubtful in what rauning Japan, but the were lust of con- direction it will break out, and what charac- quest? She would be in fact weaker and ter it will assume, It is indeed the in ter poorer for the acquisition, yet there are characteristic that is ever present to Russian millions of Russians who look forward to a statesmen, and compels them, frequently conquest of Japan as a worthy object of ambition. Again there are other allions Against their wills, to make these enor- mous warlike preparations, which in the who see in these eastern regions a field for increasing the wealth of the Empire by the ⚫nd make Russiu a terror to herself as
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well, or even more than to her neigh-development of their industrial capacities.
bours. That Russia herself is conscious of these facts, and that a large and increasing party is sincerely bent ou their amendment is indicated in many directions. Mr. DE WRITE's private memorandum, issued now rather more than a year ago, is an indication of what Russia's present statesmen do not fail to grasp. If the proverb be true that war begets war,' it is no less true that peace engenders pence, and Mr. De WITTE's memorandum, evidently never in- tended to become the property of the world. is an indication that that statesman, dimly and indistinctly, it is true, and only half consciously, had an sentiment of the fact. Tu a
nation but just emerging from nomadism war is no burden; it is its normal condition--every man carries his live in his own bands, and is equally prepared to exercise his strength in attacking his neighbour or defending himself. But with the growin of industrial enterprise, all this becomes changed. The individual has, in addition to his person, acquired property, and property of a ature particularly
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1894 declared that the British Government would hail the approach of the Siberian the thought of displacing | Railway to Talienwan, he voiced the senti- and beyond,| ment of the untion, and had Russia confined Russia in these reasons,
neither the well- herself to a peaceful occupation, Engrand ordinary garrisons,
was prepared to cordially co-operate. With the peculiar duality spoken of above which is characteristic of he nation in its transition state, while Talienwan was occupied for the peaceful object of being the commercial terminus of the railway, Port Arthur became a military fortress which it has been equally Russia's aim to ex- and into a second Sebastopol. She has in fact not up to the pre- sent been able to divorce her advance from the military element, nor sufficiently awakened to the incongruity of the two. There is then 310 insincerity in the Imperial Rescript to Count Mouravier, a telegraphic summary of which was published on the 15th instant, nor ne d we attribote to insidious councils the at ribution of a steady military advance to peaceful councils. That the Czar NICOLAS II is sincerely The match of Russia across Siberia was desirous of peace may to a typical Russinn seem quite consistent with an extension of brought about by natural events, and was
It was a gradual her armaments by sen and land; and we marked by no atrocities. process of suppression. When she in 1860 may reconcile his aims to secure the bene- made her appearance in maritime Manchuria fits of real, durable peace to all peoples while proclaming the traditional ambition she found the country a trackless and un inhabited wilderness, abandoned by its of Russia to attain in ice-free port. At all ancient inhabitants to the occupation of events in the pursuit of this her traditional wild beasts. On his first visit in the seven-policy she has been driven by the force of ties the writer found the beaches a veritable circumstances to adopt a policy which, of museum, so thickly were they strewn with its very nature must predispose her to peaceful measures; and in her industrial the skeletons of mammals, either the victims who had there bee killed and partially progress at home and her railway extension in Asin, she has, however unconsciously, devoured, or the hunters who in their enger case had fallen over the precipitous cliffs, given pledges that for the future her pro- and had themselves become victims to the gress at home and her influence abrond will Were our people more and more depend on her industrial ardour of their pursuit. but as advanced as yours in their abilities for development, rather than the extensión of colonisation, what a splendid acquisition her boundaries by profitless annexation. would this country be," remarked to the Afrank avowal of these conditions will do writer the Govercor General, But Russia much to remove the misunderstandings to had advanced quicker than she could assimi- which the Rescript alludes, and assist in the late, and the measures she took to colonise development of her Oriental possessions to were none of the nicest. Banishment to the mutual benefit of herself, England and Siberia a punishment for political Japan. offences was not intended to be the bar- obnoxious to attack. He is in fct more
barsus atrocity it eventually became. Ra concerned in defending himself than in attacking his neighbour. So far saw Mr.ther was it meant to foster the immigration DE WITTE
Russia had entered on an in- of Russian blood into these deserted regions. dustrial pilgrimage; she desired no longer The pensant was too indolent or too ignorant to voluntarily migrate, but the goverument to be a dependent on her neighbours for
wished to people the land. Had the system her daily requirements, and her ambition was to produce them herself. But to pro-it might have had such a result, but it wa
been carried out as was orginally intended duce them required capital, and her neigh- bours who held the purse-strings were chary from its beginning ubject to abuse, and soon became in emblem of divert oppression and suspicious. There was inducement for Russia to affet a peaceful Sun though slowly, Siberia did becom seventy feet in length and fifteen feet in breadth; policy, d it would be wise for her to peopled, and the marvellous richness of her displacement is 60 tons, and her draught of inuch of the new land, and its capacity for water only three feet and a half. Her sped, on refrain from any offensive war till she had
What Mr. Deeuriching the Empire could its productions the measured miles, is up to about 12 miles nu become self-supporting. WITTE did not see, or if he saw studiously only find au exit, began to be apparent developing 300 H.P., each of which gives mo But it was unfortunate; to the north were
tion to two screw-propellers on the same concealed, was that in entering on a career of industrial progress Russia was really the barren Tundras and the impassible Are shaft, sy four screws altogether. The hall is But Mr. tic Sen; to the south the deserts of Turki-entirely made of steel, but sh athed with wood giving hostages to posterity. DE WITTE is but the spokesman of a large tau, inhabited by savage nomades; west and copper, in order not to be broken through, and growing class in Russia who see, though the journey was long and tedious, and lay in case the snip happens to touch a rock in the indistinctly, that the true interests of the through truckies and inhospitable deserts; rapids. The engines and boiler as well as the course of the last five montbe, and it is hoped country lie in fostering her own almost un- and eastward the unpromising highlands of bull have been buit by the Arsenal in the that the trials will take place before the sud of touched resources rather than in overrun- Traus Baikalia bad to be overcomie, only to ning her neighbours. This is probably the arrive at a sea icebound for half the year. January. The Commander of the Russia true reason for the Czar's predeliction for | The grim Car, NICULAS I, who saw in the man-of war was present at the launching.
thus every
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H.M.S. Victorious left Nagasaki on the 13th inst. for Weibsiwei.
A small ship, belonging to the French co lony of Indo-China, but built in our Arsenal, according to a friendly agreement between the French and Chinese authorities, says the Foochow Echo, was launched on Monday last, the 8th inst. This ship is a kiød of river tug- boat, specially intended to proceed up the rapids of the Me Kiang and the dimensions of which She is are, consequently, rather nousual.
hour.
she is furnished with two engines,