arrangement of the kind suggested, that the point is scarce worth serious consideration,
Character of the Country.
The leased territory, as seen from the windows of the train, is apparently by far the most barren part of Manchuria. The soil is poor and stony, the country hilly and bare of trees, the hillsides seamed with deep gullies, where the torrential rains of summer have for centuries eaten deep into the crumbling soil. It is an altogether barren and desolate land, in which the only profitable crop is "kaoliang" (sorghum millet). With afforestation, to which the Japanese are paying close attention, all this might perhaps be changed, but years must first elapse, and, in any case, it is very doubtful if the ultimate reward would be worth the antecedent toil.
Near Liaoyang an improvement is noticeable. Gaunt hills still rise at intervals, but broad plains intervene, and the soil becomes less stony and darker in colour. The chief crop is still "kaoliang," though bean-fields increase in number. From Liaoyang northwards the soil improves, till in the neighbourhood of Tiehling it becomes the rich loam of the wheat-belt. Ranges of hills are seen at various points, but as a rule the country is rolling, reminding one somewhat of an English landscape, save that the horizon is very much broader.
Of its immense fertility and, under improved methods of agriculture, vast productiveness there can be no doubt.
Railway Settlements.
A Table is annexed to this Report giving details of the land actually known to be in the possession of the Railway at the various points along the line and a gross total of the area the ownership of which is admittedly doubtful. But definite information of the locality of the latter areas or of the circumstances rendering their ownership uncertain are not to be obtained either at Dairen or up-country. Not only was I refused permission at the head offices of the Railway Company to inspect the original Russian maps, which would have enabled me to form some idea of the topographical relation of the various railway Settlements to the Chinese towns near them, but the names also of localities in which questions of ownership awaited decision were denied me. It was with considerable difficulty that I succeeded in obtaining even the general list just mentioned. Under the circumstances, I fear I can add but little to the information already at the disposition of His Majesty's Government.
At Liaoyang, where about 1,517 acres have already been definitely settled as railway property, I was told by the Japanese Vice-Consul that the determination of ownership was proving a very difficult matter. Original site marked out by the Chinese Eastern Railway Company for its own use, It appears that, in addition to the the Russian military authorities on three subsequent occasions purchased through the local Chinese officials further lots of ground, their intention being, so my informant asserted, to make this place a large military centre. Now the original Chinese owners are coming forward to claim the ground thus acquired, contending, apparently in many cases justly, that the land had never been paid for. The money that had passed between the Russians and the local officials had remained in the pockets of the latter. It seems to me that in any case it is distinctly doubtful if sites thus acquired for military purposes can be justly held to be part of the railway property.
The Settlement (railway) at Liaoyang lies between the line and the walls of the Chinese city, coming indeed close up to the gates of the latter, and it is, as far as I could ascertain, rectangular in shape. At Mukden conditions are similar. There are the same disputes about ownership, and here again the best land, namely, that adjacent to the station, is all railway property. The area of the Settlement (1,629 acres as at present determined) is in itself sufficient to show that the approaches to the line are virtually entirely in the hands of the Japanese, and that in self-defence merchants will eventually be obliged to reside inside what will presently be the Japanese town of Mukden.
Mr. Willis, the Acting Consul-General at Mukden, who is in close touch with the Chinese authorities, is of opinion that the Japanese have not been entirely just in their methods of acquiring land at that place, but he has hitherto experienced difficulty in obtaining satisfactory evidence in support of his contention. However, that he hopes to obtain from the Chinese officials one of the original Russian maps defining clearly the area which the Chinese Eastern Railway claimed as its own. If he succeeds, some light may then be thrown on the character of the Japanese claims.
At Tiehling, I was informed by the Japanese Consul that there were no outstanding questions of ownership; but the truth of this assertion was absolutely denied at the head office of the Railway, when I made inquiries on the subject on my return to Dairen. On the contrary, I gathered that the Tiehling Settlement question was a somewhat vexatious one. In excuse for this apparent "terminological inexactitude" on the part of the Consul, it may fairly be urged that, as he entered on his duties only a few days before my arrival, he could scarcely be expected to be au fait with the work of his office.
At this place again, the railway Settlement, rectangular in shape, lies between the station and the town, a super-excellent strategical position commercially. From the top left-hand corner of the rectangle a long narrow strip of land, also included in the Settlement, stretches some two miles or more to the landing-place of Bahoko on the Liao River. This is the spot at which junks ship their cargoes of bean and bean-cake for Newchwang.
The Changchun Settlement calls for no particular comment. Irregular in shape and lying like the other Settlements between the railway and the town, it is made up of land purchased from the Chinese with the money paid by the Russians as compensation for the renunciation by the Japanese of that half of Kwanchengtzu Station to which they are entitled. So far the Japanese at Changchun have evinced no desire to avail themselves of the superior position of the Settlement site, though their houses cluster just outside its borders. The explanation given me was that inside the Settlement there are taxes and other disagreeable things, outside none.
The original plans of all the sites acquired by the Chinese Eastern Railway were recently handed over to the South Manchuria Railway Company, and they are, I understand, so well drawn up that the task of determining the rightful ownership in disputed cases promises to be a fairly easy one. Major Sato, my informant, asserted that there was not much difference in the area of the land claimed by the Russian Company, and that claimed by its Japanese successor. In his opinion, there was little question that most of the sites now the subject of contention had been undoubtedly purchased, but at so ridiculously low a figure that the only assumption possible was that the rightful owners had not been compensated, the proceeds of sales having in all probability found their way into the pockets of the Chinese officials.
Local Settlements.--Railway Administration in.
Both from His Majesty's Consulate-General at Mukden, and from this Vice-Consulate, translations have been sent to Tokio and Peking of the Regulations issued for the control of residents within the railway Settlements and of those defining the relationship of the Japanese Consuls in Manchuria with the Kwantung Governor-General. The pretensions of the South Manchuria Railway Company, similar virtually to those advanced by the Chinese Eastern Railway at Kharbin, are therefore familiar to His Majesty's Government. The latter has also defined its attitude in the case of Kharbin, so that it is unnecessary for me to refer further to the subject or to recapitulate the arguments put forward by the United States' Consul at the town just mentioned in defence of his action. I should like, however, to say that I am driven by the general impression left on my mind as the result of personal observation to concur in the opinion expressed by Mr. Willis in the last paragraph of his despatch No. 14 of the 17th February of this year. The general question of the railway pretensions is of course one which to us is for the time being of academic interest only, but it may in the near future become of considerable practical moment.
I am of opinion that if a necessity exists to dispute the claims of the Chinese Eastern Railway, much greater is that necessity in the case of those of the South Manchuria Railway Company. Dismissing from consideration abstract questions of extra-territoriality, the interpretation of clauses of railway Agreements, China's sovereign rights, &c., which have already received the attention of His Majesty's Government, there exist in my opinion in connection with the South Manchuria Railway Company certain grave practical inconveniences which appear to me to be at present absent from the Kharbin question. The Japanese line is not merely a political machine like the Russian; it is in addition of sheer necessity revenue-seeking. We cannot therefore expect for our nationals that modification in
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