RUSSIA AND PORT ARTHUR.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11790, 13 January 1904, Page 7

RUSSIA AND PORT ARTHUR.

A STRONGLY FORTIFIED STATIOX. The London Pro* Amod&tio&V correspondent «t Pekin, writing on October Port Arthur during the -week of the extoorive military and naval manoeuvres wHch w«re completed -with the Viceroy's review ©I the army, has experienced a fever of vrar anticipation. The immense ferces Assembled atwut the peninsula, and the unusual magnitude of the work on defensive fortifications, kindled the fire, and many alarmist rumours from abroad furnished fuel to keep it blazing. Port Arthur being chiefly a naval and military station, and officers of the service being the element of ite population most in evidence, runny of them with a hunger to see work in the line of their profession, there couß be no more fertile soil for planting war alarms. One day, if the street reports were to be accredited, Japan had declared war, on the morrow England had seconded her; then the Japanese fleet seized Mesampho, and forty thousand troops were landed at Fuean, after whioh the annexation of Korea, -was proclaimed in Tbkio. Such fictions launched by passengers from steamboats, or springing up with no discoverable basis, were accepted seriously by many people as the authentic history of th? day, mid thus illustrated the drawbacks of strict Governmental control of the Press. Elsewhere people would have looked to the newspapers for confirmation or denial of these stories. There, where one newspaper, published tliree times a week, and edited by a colonel on the Viceroy's staff, who sits at his desk in full uniiorm, with eword at his side, supplies the wants of a Russian-speaking constituency of some two hundred thousand souls, nj one depends upon the Press for guidance. As soon as the manoeuvres were finished the war talk began to subside. The Viceroy k quoted as saying that he considered the best way to prevent war was to show he was strong enough to crush any probable enemy. That the review of the army was intended as an exhibition for the information of other nations there can be little doubt, because every encouragement was given to visitors to witness it.

While there is much talk of the war party being in control, the great works being carried on at Port Arthur and on the Siberian railroad would appear to furnish guarantees that Russia would not wish to provoke war. Seven years ago Port Arthur was a small Chinese town, and within two or three years it will be the largest and finest European city in the Far East, as well as one of the greatest fortified naval stations in the world. Dalny, which was under the patronage of 11. Dβ Witte, although its prospects haft begun to decline 'before he resigned his portfolio, is likely to be gradually abandoned. It is nominally the terminus of the railway, but no large business firms have been attracted and there is almost no activity except the Government works, and no population save those connected wifu theee works.

The experiment of establishing two cities but a few - miles apart, it was predicted from the beginning, would result in the failure of one, end it appears tliat Port Arthur ■will be not merely the naval station, as was contemplated by the original plans, but the great commercial terminus of the Siberian Railway, which Dalny was expected to become. The lack of harbour accommodation was Port Arthur's handicap, but now the inner harbour, which wne a shallow mod flat, is being dredged, and a baain made large enough to float any fleet of merchant chips that is likely to touch there for many years. Beside this harbour the new town ie being erected—a complete city, with modern hotels, business blocks, residences, and very 'handsome and well-appointed barracks and hospitals. Within the next three years the business section of the old town, which consists of a jumbled collection of cheap wooden buildings huddled about the naval docks of the old harbour, will be destroyed, and all commercial establishments will find quarters ia the new city. One effect of war which would be felt by all foreigners in the Far East would be the temporary stoppage of the Siberian Railway service. Already that line, with the other Russian enterprises, has worked great «hang<?s in this part of the world, and it is continuing to make them. European mails are being received in Tientsin and Pekin within twenty days from London and Paris, whereas tlie time by steamers haa been from thirty to forty days. Thin ia an improvement which is appreciated by almost every foreigner in Japan and the Northern half of China. More travellers are coming to Northern China. Indeed, Pekiu, where a tourht was formerly a rarity, is brought within the globe trotter's circuit, and is becoming one of the popular show places of the East. There are other evidences of the changes due to the railway. The merchants of Tientsin and Niu-Chwang are beginning to complain that they are losing much of the fur business. Formerly the furs came from the interior to these ports for shipment abroad, but now they are begiiming to find their way to the railway centres in Man-

cliuria. Russia hae in Niu-Chwang an exceedingly valuable prize- The amount of the custom duties which are being collected at the port by Sir Robert Hartfs staff ana banded over to the Russian Administration, is about one million taels a year, while the likin duties collected directly by the Russian officials amount to half ft million. Tbie far exceeds the expenses of the Russian civil government and tho garrison. In addition, Russia is making fine bargains in real estate. The Chinese merchante complain of heavy taxation by the Russian officials, and many of them have tried to get their property" under foreign protection by making transfers to foreign "strawmen," and getting the deeds registered in the Consulates.

The residents of Niu-Chwang predict that the town will be the scene of international difficulties between the different officials during the coming winter, as it was last winter. The Russian Government has stationed two gunboats there, and the British gunboat Espiegle, the American Helena, and probably a Japanese will winter in the mud docks. The Russian officials are not pleased at the presence of the foreign craft, rememberiug the troubles which resulted from the same conditions last year. The anomalous situation at Xiu-Chwang, with the foreign Coneub accredited to the Chinese Government while Russia is the real governing power, does not tend to create Tiarnwuuous relations. In the exercise of police power the Russian soldiers were frequently called upon to arrest foreign sailors. The Consuls, particularly Mr Miller, the American representative, questioned the authority of the Russians to interfere with foreign sailors. Considerable correspondence was exchanged, but no real understanding was readied. The Russian officials have recently approached the foreign merchante with the suggestions that an international municipal council should be organised for the town, which would have two British and one American member, whose acts would be subject to the approval of the Russian administrator. Both the Cob«mls and the merchants regard the plan with disfavour, tlie Consuls because it would deprive them of a part of the authority they now have, and be a recognition of Russian sovereignty, and the merchants because they do not wish to , exchange their present extra-territorial righto to become subject to the jurisdiction of the Russian administration.