RUSSIA'S ISOLATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 231, 28 September 1915, Page 4

RUSSIA'S ISOLATION.

The menace n( ,i Gorman occupation of Russia's Baltic confrt emphases what • was manifest before — the (.insular isolatior. of the great land empire. Ruesia, it was truly observed some months hack, is more effectually blockaded tjjan Ger--1 many can ho with Austria and neutral Switzerland and Holland for her nf -ghhnurs. Soon after the vtnr Iwgan all trade stopped in ' Libau, the industrial centre of tie Western maritime regions and the port from which sail in normal yearn Home throe hundred thousand emigrants to New York. An Knjdieh traveller ut there the warehouses padlocked, the quay* liare, tlie ehi[n motionless without a puff of Hteam from their funnels, not a docker or a watchman in (tight, not. a seaman on any vessel. At Riga and all the other Baltic ports there wae the name emptiness and inactivity. Alona J the Gulf of rtothnia mines had beer laid, hindering the route to Sweden When Turkey joined in hostilities, tht Bluck Sou, too, *Tie clot-cd completely Even in time of peace the channel* be twecn it and the Mediterranean had nol been free to Husgian commerce, while tf warships and war material it was alway j cloted. But even the restricted naviga j tion allowed in peace tune was now ai an end. Odessa, Sehaatopo], Novoro!*i*4 and Batiini were idle. From these port! came ordinarily, a* well at coal, lajgi quantities of grain and iron good*, tw< of the principal requisites for the armifi and the civilian population. There re j mained the Arctic seaboard, and thi jetretch of the Pacific coa*t as far eouti of Vladivoatock. opposite Japan—th< latter an extensive enough littoral, bul robbed of half its value owln;? to the fart that all its hat bourn arc frozen dur ing part of the year. The chief Arctic port. Arr-hanje , , nai visited by steamerfrom America, England, and elsewhere and Enjlmh «teaincr»* mailed down the Obi as far as Tonuk. Hut for five month' of the year the harbour of Archangel ii icebound. The whole seaborne trade ol the vast empire, which stretcher across the whole of Aoia and mwt of' Northern and Eastern Europe, wae for a time con fined to Vladivootock alone. But Vladivoctook itself, though in about the lurac latitude a* Florence. suffer* from a win ter climate a* severe as. that of the Gulf of Finland. In .January there are often fli or 72 decree* of froet. For nearly four months it* waters are froixn, and though ice breakers are ueed only a small amount nf shipping can pel through Only for eight months of tho yrar can foreign supplies in any considerable quantity bo brought into the country. Moreover, although in capa city, in *heltor and in facilities for fcrtift r-.ition,. its harbour i< magnificent, it po>*e*n?> inMiffiriont flat ground; and. it U situated far from the centres of Euro pcan RuMla A stretoli of thousands of miles separates it from the theatre, of •.vnr and from the population of the capital and other cities. There m no other good a*a port along , * this Far Eastern coast The channel leading to the harbour of Nicholaevnk is narrow, and rendered <i»ngerous by shifting sandbanks. To VUidivoatoek eorne in normal times provisions from China, froren meat from Australia, and great quantities of flour from America. The latest cable references to it speak of it as busily importing war munitions from America and .lapan. before the winter sots in. On the land «ide, in Europe and in Transcauraoia. Russia ie almost blocked in by th» enemy countries of Austro Hungary, Germany and Turkey, while its Asiatic neighbours are mostly barbarous tribes, or eW decadent ancient cjvilieationp. Iv spite of all those disadvantages, the economi" position of Russia is by no means desperate. , The Empire is no vast that if the neee*aary labour were employed it could b* entirely elfeupportIng in peace or in war. For example, the importdtion of flour from America ia wholly unnecessary, since inland from Vladi'vostock is a'fertile resion of .VXX) square miles, which could be devoted to wheat srowlng. Manchuria has a wheat belt eaid to equal that of North-western Panada, while Siberia wante only labour to make it one of the greatest wheatproducing regions of the world. The broad paeture Innds of the Empire could T*i»t> herds enouah to provide all the meat Buppliee needeil for army and civilians. In UnAsift we arc dealing, not with hundreds nor thousand* of square nnies, but with millions. The numerous grout rivers and tributaries that intersect it almost a« closely .is the canals intersect Holland, not only form trade routes, but supply it with quantities of flnh. The Krnpire cannot be starved out. Famine,* can only be local, and he the result of failure r.f distribution. It can also provide it« own clothing. <'otton is prown in some places, and a considerable quantity '» hroutrht in by its AsiMir noiMihoiirs. Russian funs are known all over the world, and furnish the people with ti form of clothing neewsary as a protection from the extreme cold of \U winter*. Eight years ajro. Putnam Weale wrote, "Ruaeia,* the ohiples-s, landlocked Poxcr. de.pende now on nothing except tho efforts of her people." At the present crisis ita crying neod is munitions of wnf U> cope with the military engines of the Auatro-German forces.' Yet Russia has large quantities of minerals and numerous iron foundries and ironworks. Unfortunately one nf the chief centres of the iron indiietry wan Poland, which is now in the hnnde of the German*, and though we are nseureid the country has been cleared of. all that could profit its invalere, yet the industry cannot be transferred elsewhere with success. Other centres are nrounii Moufnw, in the Irftls. and in the Rputh and south-east of F.urnpean Russia, in the province of Eknterinoelav and tin , vicinity of Odessi.. There are also untold supplies nf mineral wealth in Siltoria, very inadequately workHl. .hist nfle-r the Ru»so-.lapanese waT, the Russian officials Rive proof of what niijrht bo done in rotikinj; the eastern territories produce all that then - needed of warlike stores and munitions. At Irkutsk and at Chita, the centre or Transbaikalia, they founded exlen&ive

artillery depots, -with special establishment* attached, and fitted with modern appliances, and the Petroysk ironwork* •were converted into an arsenal. The remote east i« linked to the capi tal on the west by means of the TranaSiberian railway, and numerous, though insufficient, railways unite the principal centres acroi« the length and breadth of nearly two continents, in addition to the waterways, which, in tye north, arc frozen in wi'ntor. Russia then, if her people rise to thbs tremendous crisis ol her fafe, ami draw upon all their onerpies and all their natural resources, is absolutely unconquerable. For a season she suffers, and must suffer terribly, from the sudden disorganisation of her most necessary industries, from the depletion nl the ranks ol her workcTS to fill her armies. The armies of Russia are enormous, and The enemy have taken heavy human toll from them. There are not enough men left to do even the ordinary work of the nation, much lesg to accomplish all that is necessary in fiiis emergency. By February this year most of the able bodied men of the immense tract of Russian Europe and of Siberia were on the German, Austrian, and Turkish frontiers. Their place was taken to some extent t>y women, hy: boys, and by old men. The Russian Government are also forcing their Teutonic prisoner* to work on th.- railwayn anil in the Kilx-rian mini-*. Yet works must be abandoned for l»ck of -workers, und there ig urgent need of help from abroad. One of the main lessons of thi* war is the necessity for this preat landlocked Kmpire to be given southern harbours, free from ice. .md acrese to] the Mediterranean, so that in time* of stress she can receive supplies from the! outer world while she ft righting herself industrially. Had the seas been open to her commerce, she could lon<* a£o, when the danger fip»t threatened, have pot in supplies of war material, and she would then never have underpone the terrible stifTerinjr that hhe must now pass through befr re her people can again poeoe-s their own lands. And not only Russia, but her Allies, are paying now for the preposterous polity of a by-gone school of statesmen who tried to cut off the gTcateit land nation from the rest of the world.