PORT ARTHUR.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13622, 4 January 1910, Page 7

PORT ARTHUR.

I THE OPEN DOOR POLICY. tJnited Press Association—By Electric •.,*••-.'; Telegraph—Copyright. (Received? January 3rd, 10.15 p.m.) •>■'■ TOKIO, January 3. Reuters Tokio correspondent announces the early opening of Port Artbur as a free commercial port of entry. By the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 Russia transferred to Japan the lease, which expires in 1923, of.the Kwangtung Province, including Port Arthur, Taiien, and Dalny. The last-named was subsequently made a free port. Writing in August last, "The Times'' special correspondent pointed out_tnat Japan haying inherited in regard to Southern Manohiuria the peculiar and in many respects abnormal position which Russia had'acquired throughout Manchuria before the outbreak of hostilities, it was, with the cession of the southern half of the island of Sakhalin and a free hand in Korea, the only material compensation which Japan obtained in return for her enormous sacrifices of blood and' treasure during a long c_mpaign uniformly successful both by land and sea. That she should be determined jealously to guard that position and to turn it in every way to the best economic, strategical, and political account was therefore not unnatural.

At a later date, "The Times;' correspondent wrote, as follows: —Certainly nowhere in Manchuria is Japanese activity, seen to better advantage than at Dairen J Port Arthur is now almost deserted, though it is-still the seat of government for tbe whole of the leased territory- The. Japanese are strengthening its fortifications towards the sea, but all the great forts on the land 6ide remain much as they were on the -day of the capitulation, silent witnesses, scarred by shells and furrowed' by mines and counter-mines, to the titanic severity of the struggle waged on their Wood-stained; slopes. So long as they retain command of the sea, the Japanese believe that the narrow neck of land by which;. Port Artbur can alone be approached from tho north can be held against any odds. Jt is upon Dairen that they have concentrated all their energies, and these energies are essentially peaceful energies. Their object is to convert the port into one of the chief commercial centres of Eastern Asia. The friends of Japan can only hope that the work which lies before her in Manchuria will henceforth be conducted in the brood and statesmanlike spirit which she now displays at Dairen. The friendly relations now established at Dairen between the Japanese on tho one hand and the Chinese population as well as the foreign residents on .the other, are at any rate of happy augury. Hero at least the "open door" is a fact.

CABLE NEWS.