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Press, Volume LX, Issue 11580, 11 May 1903, Page 8

CABLE NEWS.

line. Hailar, where five years ago were a few Mongol tents, near a poor Chinese leettte—lent, is now a Russian town with Russian shops, hotels, and hospitals. I counted 22 locomotives standing at the station. Harbin is a Russian city where five years ago there were half-a-dozen Chinese mud huts. It has a Russian civil population of 9000, growing, always throbbing with activity; with river steamers on the Sungari busy as on on American river; with forests of scaffold poles where a new town is under construction; with engine shops equal to anything in Asia, and engine sheds with stalls'for 42 locomotives. At Hantahotzu and other places in the forests east of Harbin, where five years ago were some robber huts, there are now large Russian settlements, with much home life and women and children. At Pogranitehnaia, on the eastern frontier, where there was nothing, there is now a Russian town with handsome brick buildings, electric light and water laid on, a public park, a reading room, and railway stalls for 21 locomotives. Coming south from Harbin, Russian settlements are being built on Russian concessions alongside all the great cities. At Mukden the railway, which was 15 miles away, now passes the western wall. The Russian concession round the railway station covers ton square miles. Large barracks aro being built there, and_ permanent accommodation for railway officials and the officers of the permanent'garrison. There are now no railway guards; they are called significantly frontier guards. They will numbar 30,000, or whatever greater number Russia thinks fit, und be distributed along the railway, permanent guardhouses having been built for them every three miles, with large barracks at every important military centre. Though tlie permanent work is still incomplete, the whole xailway is now open. The distance from the western frontier to Harbin is 605 miles, from Harbin to the eastern frontier 335 miles, from Harbin to Port Arthur 615 miles. There are stations about every 15 miles, the greatest distance between any two being 20 miles, while there are major stations with railway workshops every 75 miles, and at*very station there are sidings of great length beside the main line. The main line is being shortened by bringing the railway straight past Mukden and by cutting the Great Klnngan tunnel, 3138 yards in length, near the Western and three tunnels through the mountains near the Eastern frontier. The latter will be completed this year, and the former within nine months. All the permanent bridges, including two splendid steel bridges across the Sungari and a bridge over the Nonni, near Tsitsihar, are finished and open. These three bridges, in total length 2555 yards, contain 19 spans of 245 feet. Three-fourths of the entire ballasting is already completed, and! swarms of coolies are proceeding with tlie work. At present three trains pose daily each way over tho entire distance, but it is intended to increase the number to ten each way. Stations are being multiplied. The widest distance between the crossover sidings will eventually be only seven miles, and, since the sidings are more than double the length of the longest train, two trains can be moved at the same time, one behind the other. It is purely a question of rolling stock. An average train contains 25 coaches. Tho ordinary cars have sleeping berths for 48 soldiers with rifle equipment. So lightly do Russian soldiers travel that these figures suggest a possible movement of troops that has hitherto escaped obsen T ation. From tlie Eastern frontier, beyond which are the great military depots near Vladivostock, troops are moved to Harbin in 34 hours; from Transbaikalia, beyond the western frontier, trains, even now, though using a zigzag over the Khingan mountains, reach Harbin in 64 hours, and travel from Harbin to Port Arthur in only 60 hours. The solemn assurances of Russia regarding the evacuation of Manchuria will be faithfully carried out, especially as after such evacuation Russia, by concentrating her army of occupation along the railway, which passes the gates of the most important and richest cities of the three provinces, will be more immovably installed in Manchuria than before tlie evacuation. From Harbin the railway, carried southwards, passes the commercial cities of Kwang-cheng-tsze, Kai-yuen, Tie-ling, Mukden, Liau-yang, Hai-cheng, and others along the Imperial highway in the valley of the I_au river. The country is one of the richest granaries of Asia, with live stock and foodstuffs well nigh inexhaustible. Every town is overflowing with abundance, while all along the highway are vast Chinese caravanserais able to quarter comfortably the winter traffic, which is one of the sights of Eastern Asia, 2000 carts drawn each by seven mules heavily laden, passing a given point per day. Now think what evacuation means. I met Russian troops evacuating, on October Bth, the country west of the (Liau river. The evacuation, conforming exactly to the. letter of the Convention, meant moving these troops one march eastwards to Mukden, tq the Russian railway concession, where, in accordance with tlie railway agreement, they can be garrisoned permanently to guard the railway. The evacuation of Niu-chwang means the removal of the troops one hour's march up sbream to permanent quarters in the Russian concessions, or one hour by train eastwards to the Hussian settlement of Tashih-chiao, where ample permanent barracks, solidly constructed of stone and' brick, will be ready for the winter. The evacuation of tlie great city of Mukden means removing the troops from within tlie walls one hour's march to the Russian concession outside the wall, where permanent quarters ai*e being constructed for the garrison, which is expected to number 6000. The evacuation of Liau-yang means the removal of Russian troops within the wall to the railway concession outside the wall, where 150 large detached brick houses, many of them twostoreyed, are already completed, where two barracks 400 ft by 50ft are under construction, where a fort Is being built for a battery of eight guns, where there are engine sheds for 21 locomotives, and a hospital and preparations for a permanent force of 3000 men. Similarly with all the other lalfce cities to Harbin, which, being a Russian city, cannot be evacuated. Kirin, tho capital of Kirin province, a splendid city of 300,000 people, which is at present strongly held by a large Russian force, will be evacuated on April Bth. Evacuation means marching -the troops three days westwards to the railway at Kwang-cheng-tsze. But even this will be unnecessary, because Russia, with the approval of the helpless Chinese, intends to construct a branch railway from Kwang-cheng-tsze to Kirin, 80 miles over easy country, when the evacuation of Kirin will mean the removal of Russian troops one hour's march from the city to the Russian concession at the railway station. Such a railway will certainly be extended to this important centre, the more so as railway extension carries with it the right to garrison the railway with whatever number of soldiers Russia, sees fit. So cleverly has the railway been traced that thcra is not one important Toadway in Manchuria which it does not command. The troops guardincr the railway iruurd all the capitals." As tlie railway "pasres 16 miles from Tsitsihar, the capital of Hei-luns-kiang, the troops guarding it command the city. It passes within a similar distance of Ninguta, and so tbe troops guarding it guard this important strategic position"on the frontier. Tlie garrisons of towns like Hun-chun, or fortified towns like San-sin?, always weak, are now helpless.

In every case evacuation means the removal of Russian troops to a point from which the city evacuated can be struck immediately and without, resistance. Manchuria is absolutely dominated by Russia. All the officials are absolutely in her power; none can be appointed without her approval; and evacuation cannot alter a domination which is fast becoming as effective as that of England over the Native States of India. All the waterways are controlled by Russia, and so ,they will be after the evacuation. Wherever they are navigable float Russian steamers, and since such waterways end in Russian rivers such steamers are exclusively Russian.

At present the Governors-General of the three provinces are restricted ea regards the number of soldiers they may employ. Every rifle is branded by the Russians; every rifle seized without" a brand is confiscated; smokeless powder L* forbidden: the rifles are chiefly of an old pattern of Mauser: tie artillery has been entirely confiscated, as have the entire contents of ever— arsenal, magazine, and fort throughout

CABLE NEWS.

Manchuria. Brigands purchasing smuggled aims are better armed than the soldiers; hence the increase of lawlessness away from the Russian lines, which tl*e Russians appear to regard with equanimity. After the evacuation Russian military commissioners attached to each Governor-General by tho consent of the Chinese will supervise military affairs, ready to check any attempt by the Chinese to recover their strength even if the Chinese did not recognise its hopelessness.. The commissioners at present holding these appointments are Colonels Bogdanoff at IsUsihar, Sokovnin nt Kirin, and Kvebinski at Mukden. Reniemberiusr that during the Boxer outbreak General Rennenkampf with 300 Cossacks swept unchecked through Manchuria from Blagovc6tcheu.sk to near Mukden, the military resistance of which China is capable is "evident, and at that time Manchuria was armed; now Manchuria is disarmed"