The Auckland Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1908. RUSSIA'S ASIATIC' RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 72, 24 March 1908, Page 4

The Auckland Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1908. RUSSIA'S ASIATIC' RAILWAY.

For the cauto that labia oaslstonco. For the wrong tiMt needs rmietOHoe, for the future in the. distance, JLmZ the good that ttocu tlo.

Judging from the fragmentary evidence that our cables supply, it would seem that the' Czar's Ministers have been easily reconciled to the rejection of their enormous naval programme. Indeed, the facility with which M. Stolypin accepted the decision of the Douma on this question at least arouses the suspicion "that the Russian Premier had .never expected the votes to be carried, and .had treated the proposals as -little more tlran an imposing formality. But it is clear that, Russia is still bent on following out Jier traditional policy of development in .Asia, for the JEinance Minister is now ■ demanding £36,000,000 for new railways in and. around Manchuria. The rulers of ; Russia have never failed to .understand that imperial expansion is largely a matter of commercial outlets and means of communication. This has been the fundamental idea be- . bind,her struggled or "ice-free ports" :on the Atlantic, r the Mediterranean and -the; ■Pacific, ana it is the source of her railway policy in Asia to-day; - Very few' people realise how far this policy has already advanced towards success. The Trans-Caspian line ami "the OrenburgTashkent lines hare not only laid open vast areas of Gentral Asia to Russian commerce ana. colonisation, but -'.have brought /Russia's huge military resources within striking distance of India's northern border,-and within easy range of the ; Persian Gulf. The Siberian railway completely justified its construction in the late- war ,and now it is to be' duplicated for military as, well .as commercial purposes.- Another great project for a line across the Mongolian desert' from the Baikal district to Kalgan will enable' Russia to exploit China from the .north, ■without entering Manchuria, and will threaten the Japanese position on its weakest side, while bringing Russia nearer Peking than she .has ever come before. The proposed connection of the Orenburg-Tashkent line with the Sibex* ian line will double, the value of both railways; while the line from Tsitsihar; to the. Amur, and the new military railway from Changchun to Eirin will effectually guard aginst such disasters as overtook Russia at Liao Tang aacL Mukden. .Russia, _in- short, is making every, effort, not only to consolidate herself in Asia, but to retrieve her lost position in the Far East, and to exploit tjie wealthy districts not yet open to European commerce; and ;the immense probabilities latent in her railway scheme render the new "f orwaTd" policy a matter of surpassing interest to European diplomatists statesmen.