410
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
RUSSIAN TRADE IN THE FAR EAST.
to Mr. Hay's room in the State Department since this morning. When I speak of effective support for China I do not man support by arms, which it is far too soon to suggest as even Before a meeting of the Fociety for the Pro- a possible contingency. Other support comes first, but the other sentiment also is aroused. Odessa, M. Merkaloff delivered, last month. an motion of Russian Trade and Industry at Paris to-day says that France supports Russia. address, the general tenour of which explains That means another chook to American sympa-Russia's desire to adopt a “ closed door" policy thisers with France.
in Manchuria, says the Standard's co respon- dent. The lecturer, who spoke from a very The comment of the St. Petersburg semi comprehensive and complete knowledge of his official journal Novoe Vremya on the recent subject, pointed out, in the first place, that, in information supplied by the Peking correspon-spite of all its persevering efforts, this country's dent of the Times and Renter's Agency with export trade to China was comparatively in- regard to the new Russian demands in Man- finitesimal China's imports last year were ohuris is worth quoting. After poking a great valued at three hundred and twenty-three deal of would-be fun at the ind gnation displayed millions of roubles, and to this total the by the British Press, it poumerates the new Russian contribution was twenty-eight thousand conditions on which Rasis is allegel to have roubles. Th high freight rates from European made her evacuation of Manchuria depend, and Russia to the Far East may, in some degree, account for this. From Odessa to Vladivostock the freight rate is two and a half times higher than that from Hamburg to the same Far Eastern port. B sides this drawback, however, Russian products generally fail to hold their own with those of Western Europe in the
"Of course there is nothing extraordinary about these demands, which merely secure Russia's interests in Manchuria, where we acquired nu doubted rights after the events of 1900. But neither the English nor the Japanese, to judge by the newspaper extracts, are willing to reckon with these rights, and thus immediately the Russian demands became known in Peking the representatives of Great Britain and Japan strongly arred Prince Ching to make a protest and to demand in his turn that the position of Manchuria should be made the same as it was before 1900.
Chinese markets.
Turning his attention to the Chinese Easter Railway, M. Merkuloff said that the connection of Kharbin with Dalny by rail had not in the lightest degree improved Russia's Far Eastern trade; on the contrary, the opening up of that route had given an impetus to foreign competi- tion. The Southern section of the Manchurian "We are able to declare on the basis of in-line, more especially, had proved positively formation received from the most trustworthy sources that Russia has not presented any kind of ultimatum whatever to the Chinese Govern- ment and, moreover, has not demanded from China the signature of new agreement with regard to Manchuria as a condition of our evacuation of that country. The statements of Renter's Agency and the telegram of the Peking Correspondent of the Times are pure
fabrications.”
In the House of Lords on May 1st, the Marquis of Lansdowne spoke as follows:-I may perhaps supplement by a few words the statement which I made in reply to Lord Spencer 1st night upon the subject of the evacuation of Manohari I have received from the Russian Ambassador, to whom I had addressed an enquiry upon the subject, a verbal statement to the following effect. The informa- *tion which has reached the British Government as to the conditions required for the evacuation
of Manchuris is not at all correct. The discussions which are proceeding at Peking concern Manchuria alone, and have reference to certain guarantees which are indispensable for securing the most important Russian interests in the province after the withdrawal of the Russian troops. As for measures which might tend to exclude foreign Consuls or obstract foreign commerce and the us) of ports, such measures are far from entering into the intentions of the Imperial Government. They consider, on the contrary that the development of foreign commerce is one of the main objects for which the Russian Government have undertaken the construction of the lines of railway in that part of the world.
Reuter's correspon lent wiring from Peking said:--
The official denial from St. Petersburg of the authenticity of the published accounts of ussia's demands regarding Manchuria has elicited the comment in the Legations here in terested in the matter that Russia's diplomatic machinery shows a lack of harmony, as on the day the denial was issued M. Planoon, the Russian Chargé d'Affaires, admitted to two of his colleagues here that their information on the subject was correct.
From the China Times of the 21st ult. we learn that Lieutenant Grey, a British officer well known in Tientsin and Tongshan, while on the way from Lutai to Shanhaikwan with two native Indian soldiers, all mounted, was attacked by robbers 30 miles west of Tongshan. Native Christians sent word to Tongshan, and the mounted infantry there immediately set out for the scene of the attack, and found Lieut Grey and the two Indian troopers all wounded.
[June 6, 1993.
THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY.
Mr. J. M. Maclean, formerly editor of the Bombay Gazette, writes an able, if somewhat Magazine of Commerce. He contends that this prejudiced, article in the May issue of the railway is a blow to our commercial supremacy in the Far East, and concludes:-
Russia as nothing but an overgrown military We have been in the habit of regarding empire, but her efforts for many years past have been mainly devoted to the prosecution of works of industrial activity. The Crimean War was an excellent lesson for her. It taught her her compelled her to study the means of making own weakness, threw her back upon herself, and
the "world recognise her real greatness. It tern Powers of Europe imagined they cu'd seems absurd now to remember that the Wis cripple Russis for all time and bind all her maritime aspirations in chains by shutting ker up within the frozen waters of the Baltic and the jealonsly-guarded portal of the Black Een. Russia has since made use of her restored strength and the friendship of France to bust in pieces the bond by which the Treaty of Paris essayed to fetter her young limbs. She has also made the Black Sea completely her own. The Turkish flag only flies there by her permission. through the now emancipated provinces of The whole coast, from the Balkans right round Turkey, to the Caucasas and the annexed Tur- kish territory Fetween Kars and Batoum, now belongs to the Russian Empire. The Caucasas injurious to Russia's commercial interests i
once the home of bands of intractable brigands, that region. If Russian trade is to have any by railways.
has been co quered, opened out, and traversed thing like a fair chance in Manchuria, the trau discovery of perennial wells of oil has enriched At Baku, on the Caspian, the port tariff must be reduced seventy-five per cent.
China will never become an important con- ing town into a populous and walthy city. the whole country, and converted a poor, decay- sumer of Russian products so long as there The whole of the rich province of Khorassan, in are no flourishing Russian industries on the Northern Persia, has practically become Russ'au; Chinese frontier, in Manchuria, and on the new lines of railway on both banks are surmount- Amur littoral, and until the Amur Railwaying the break of the Caspian Sea. The whole is built. Under the existent state of things, of the fertile country of Central Asia, down to said M. Merkuloff, Russian trade and commerce
the mountainous barrier of the Hindu Klush, in the Far East were hopelessly handicapped. is now Russian territory. The officers of the and a successful, or partially successful, competi- Taar are eagerly pushing forward the construc tion against the West European manufacturers tion of the trunk line from Orenburg to Tash- and exporters and against American and Japa- kend, which will complete railway communication nese enterprise was practically impossible. The from Moscow to the Oxus, and which, but for politico-commercial policy of the Manchurian Afghan prejudice, f stered by the stupid policy railway-it were idle to disguise the fuot-has, of the Government of India, which seeks to in its result, been something worse than abor
erect a sort of Chinese wall at the Himalayas to tive. Instead of gaining new markets Russia is protect the Indian frontier, would quickly link losing old ones, and her project of industrial together the Russian aud Indian railway systems, colonisation and development in Manchuria and complete an overland line from Calais toCalcutta, on the Amur is marred by the foreigner The andnable English travellers to reach the present oo, ditions are intolerable. Russia must Indian capital in less than 10. diys' time. devise the means of preventing the entry of this truly marvellous work of putting new life foreign merchandise into Manchuria, except into Asia has now been crowned by the railway through the ports of Nicolaievsk and Vladi- from Europe to the Pacific coast of China. vostock, and a general prohibition must be is charitable to suppose that Mr. Arthur Bal- established in favour of Russian trade and
four little knew what he was talking about commerce in the Amur region.
when he invited Russia to take possession of Port Arthur. He was not merely giving away share with England the mastery of the Pacific. a strategical position, but admitting Russia to
M. Merkaloff then, in conclusion, referred oracularly to certain representations being made, or about to be made, to the Chinese Government by the Russian Minister at Peking, in relation to Manchuria, curiously coincident with a recent and sensational revelation of Russia's designs in that province of the Middle Kingdom
RUSSIA AND NEWCHWANG.
In the House of Commons on April 30th, Mr. J. Walton asked whether, seeing that Russia had collected and retained the Imperial Maritime Customs Revenues at Newchwang since August, 1900, and in view of the fact that these form part of the security for Chinese loans, His Majesty's Government had made representations to the Russsian Government in regard to the restoration of these moneys in the interests of British bondholders; and, if so, with what results?
Lord Cranborne: We ha e been informed that the duties collected by the Imperial Maritime Customs at Newchwang are paid into the Russo-Chinese Bank to the credit of the Chinese Government, minus themontly amount required for the support of the offices. I under- stand that the Russian authorities el im to de- duct from this fund the amount expended by them for repair of the Shanhaikwan-New- chang Railway. Further enquiries are being made as to whether such an arrangement would ́endanger the security of the bondholders.
All
It
No wonder he was taken at his word. For 200 years the main object of Russian policy had been to gain admission to a free port on the ocean. This was the secret of Russia's constant yearning to reach the Persian Gulf, and the relentless vigour with which she pitilessly assailed Turkey till she became mistress of the Black Sea and the channel into the Mediter ranean. Now England herself asked her to become a great maritime power. Russia gle fully assented, and then, while the organised brigandage of the rest of Christian Europe displayed its superior civilisation by ruthlessly butchering the Chicese people. and pillaging Peking, Russia in the most systematic manner effected the annexation to ber empire of the great province of Manchuria, in which she found fertile terrritory, populous cities, a swarming population, rivers abounding in fish and navigated by immense numbers of native craft, and in which she has lest no time in constructing a railway which extends her Siberian line as far as Port Arthur. Now she, indeed, “b strides the narrow world like a Colossus She has become an immense homogeneous self-sufficing empire, and is prac- tically unassailable by the fleets of any maritime Power. For this unhoped-for consummation, on a grander scale, of the policy of Peter the Great she has to thank the Prime Minister cf England.
11
+
i