AN ULTIMATUM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 5

AN ULTIMATUM.

RUSSIA AND CHINA. IS IT A CASE OF THE WOLF AND THE LAMB? DEMONSTRATION TO BE MADE ON FRONTIERS. By Telegraph.— Press Association. -Copytigbt. ST. PETERSBURG, 17th February. The Russian Minister at Pekin, M. Korostovetz, has been instructed to present an ultimatum to China.' M. Sazonow, Minister for Foreign Affairs, has communicated to, Great Britain, France, and Japan, his intention of demonstrating on the Chinese frontiers. REACTION AGAINST BUREAUCRACY. NATIONAL SPIRIT. LONDON PRESS OPINIONS. (Received February 18, 9 a.in.) LONDON, 17th February. Thq Times says a conspicuous feature in tho affairs of China is the growth of a national spirit, which is in the nature of a reaction against a- corrupt bureaucracy that is impotent to resist foreign encroachments. The step taken by Russia may possibly provoke an explosion of public feeling ending in a revolution. The Daily Graphic says that Russian action with regard to Hi is the result of tho Potsdam agreement between Germany and Russia. It is difficult, the paper adds, to find more cynical disregard for international law and morality. China punctually and scrupulously observed the conditions of the 1881 treaty. It will be interesting to see what Mr. iisquiih and Sir Edward Grey will say in view of the principles laid down, in connection with Bosnia. The Westminster Gazette says the tone of the Russian Note assumes that China is uncivilised It would be inconceivable that a European Power could treat Japan similarly. [A cablegram received yesterday stated: "The St. Petersburg correspondent of The Times reports that owing to China's persistent disregard of treaty obligations with respect to the East China railway and consular jurisdiction, Russian troops are reoccupying the Hi region, near the north-western frontier of China." Matters on some parts of tho frontier have been strained for some time. Towards the end of December last The Times published the following message: "Private letters from Harbin state that the Chinese police, on 14th December, attempted to arrest two Russian officers and two Cossacks en route from Blagovestchensk to Sakhalin-Ula, near Aigun, where the relations of the Russians and Chinese have been bitter since 1898. The captain escaped and returned next day, accompanied by 200 Cossacks, for the purpose of releasing the colonel and Cossacks, who were confined in tho police guardhouse. The Chinese refused to deliver up the prisoners, and a oonflict ensued. Many were wounded, but there were no killed. The prisoners were released, and the Russian force returned to , Blagovestchensk."]