FREE PORTS CLOSED. ON THE AMUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 139, 11 December 1908, Page 7

FREE PORTS CLOSED. ON THE AMUR.

By Telegriph.— Press Association.— Copjricht. ST. PETERSBURG, 10th Dec. A Bill closing tho free ports in the Amur and trans-Baikal territories has been adopted by the Duma. The Government declared that this action was a necessary forerunner of the revival of Russian commerce and industry. ; Russia seems determined to develop for her own benefit the territories mentioned. Not long ago the Duma sanctioned a Bill for constructing the Amur rail-way, branching from the trans-Bai-kal section of the trans-Siberian system to Khabarovsk, in Russia's Asiatic maritime province. The new line will follow the north side of the Amur River and make a total length of 1360 miles. The cost, exclusive of rolling stock, is estimated at £22,500,000, or £16,600 per mile. The Minister of Railways has promised that the line will be built with Russian materials and by Russian labour, employing soldiers and even convicts, but not Chinese. The point of departure from the existing track will bs Kujenga, and not Nertcninsk, as originally proposed. It will give access over indisputably Russian territory to the coast line connecting /nth Vladivostock, and is strongly advocated by the Premier, M. Stolypin, as a great scheme of Russian colonisation and barrier against the "yellow peril" on her Eastern frontier. One, of the alleged secret reasons for the need of hurrying on the railway was that China and Japan had formulated aggressive plans against Russia.

Ladies' Tailors. — The oldest and best firm in Australasia. Eton Gowns and Costumes from £5 ss, Skirts from £1 10s Nodine and Co., 30, Wellington-terrace.— Adit.