OUR MANCHURIAN LETTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11798, 30 July 1900, Page 8

OUR MANCHURIAN LETTER

(From Our -Own .Correspondent.) June 1.

Our- railway gets on slowly. We are much assailed hero with invidious comparisons. There is another railway not far off which is built for good at the first touch, which is opened in detachments for traffic according as it is_ fit for vise, and" of which they boast that it is already, whenever it is open, a paying concern. It is a delicate matter to speak of, as the paying concern is, of course, English, and the other is Russian. How wel! the other line is built one hears tho Chinese say to each other. And an expert, who I believe is not. English, has put the same thing in print—from an engineer's point of view. We hope to be connected with' Russia this autumn, and I suppose- this is why our line is only laid in rough, _ sometimes dumped down on level land without obliterating the furrows of the previous year's crop. I have not- seen any attempt at ballast. Traffic, therefore, is impossible in wet weather. I had a run of 80 miles lately, and was very much reminded of sea traffic. On a straight level we lay over like a boat under a good pull of sail. At other places there was a positive dip up' and down, which, to one standing in an open truck and looking forward, was not a pleasant sensation, forward, was not a very pleasant sensation, though I am reckoned a good sailor. And therefore we are beginning to have accidents. Two have come to my knowledge of a very seiious nature. In the one case two covered vans were pitched off the line,, and rolled over. I saw them in situ, and they were badly damaged. In the other case the train was starting, and apparently had too many carriages to clear the curve on to the main line from'the side loop. At all events, the end carriages left the rails and dragged, and it was some time before the engine-driver could be got to understand what had happened. The authorities may deem themselves lucky, for it was a human freight in high-covered luggage vans, and there would be 1200 workmen at least in one of the trains. Some say there' were nearer 2000 in the second train above referred to. One of my informants had lost a nephew. But even he felt the merciful side of the affair, when the whole number of deaths is probably under eight at this. date. The passengers were in Russian pay. They were engaged on the other side of the water from us, at Tientsin, inspected by a Russian doctor,, and passed on to Port Nuiehwang, either by steamer or by the English railway (as it is called by the natives). At the time I last heard the count over 4000 had passed this way, and some 10,000 had been engaged altogether. These go up right north with a view to connect with the Russian frontier. The Russians, I need not say, are very obliging. One can get a free pass at any time. I have heard of one refusal, but it was a case of Russo-phobia met by a case of Anglo-phobia, and does not count. Perhaps because I am a civil man myself, I think the Russians are a wonderfully civil people. I can produce a beautifully bow from every Cossack of them. I can go with my tea kettle to the locomotive or to the telegraph office and beg for hot water without the slightest risk of a misadventure. How chummy they would be if I could only speak Russian! With such German as I have I have made many friends. It is al- ■ ways the old story, too—the Russians like the British individually. To be sure, there is the Boer war between us, and there is undoubtedly a strong national jealousy. But enmity is too big a word to be used between us. The Russians respect us too much —respect our liast history too much —to hate us. If they were only to get as much freedom of expansion as we demand for our-

selves, the two nations might become useful friends. My thoughts run in this channel because of what I see around me. Russia

is to become a more vulnerable Power than she used to be—and knows it. Here's Japan on her flank! A sea-Power and a landPower at once! If Russia must dominate

all Manchuria and all Corea also—then Ja-

pan must either fight or renounce the honourable ambition which has drawn all hearts to her. Japan will certainly not submit without a struggle. Here the dominant idea

is that Japan will recover this southern spit of the Manckurian territory which she won in the war. Manifestly our hereditary Chinese prefer the Japanese to the Russian. The Japanese wrote their language, if they did not speak jt. They treated the natives better than the average Cossack does. When

leii1 soldiers were here they

were accom-

panied always and 'everywhere by their offi cers, and the discipline was simply perfect, even from our highest Christian point of view. The Japanese coolies sometimes broke out. But in the Port of Niuchwang, in the main street, I once grappled such a

:ello\v—and he allowed me to

I took a

smali amber pipe head (tobacco pipe) out of its hand, and gave it back to the owner from whom he had appropriated it (the owner being most reluctant to charge the thief). But I knew the situation. My shout, Where was the nearest Japanese officer? was understood of all. For in some shop or other along that busy thoroughfare I knew there would be a representative of the best European -discipline, and the ■ coolie therefore vanished at the call. Now, here the officer is not always with the Cossack. We are in a stale of peace, and the Cossack moves about freely, and, being (as a rule) much addicted to drink, he gets into frequent trouble, and in his cups, though a very good-natured fellow otherwise, he seems to the peaceful Chinese a very dangerous character. I say frankly to my Russian friends, " Your grand drawback here is the Cossack." For the Cossack has been employed to shoot the natives on several occasions, where we British employed on the other railway would have gone naturally to the native magistrate. This, therefore, smells of foreign dominion. To be sure, such, shooting -in all the instances I know of

has been followed by an act of compensation on the- part of the Russians, tliougli I know at first bawd of one important case where the Russians only fired because they were fired upon, and that from behind cover.

.'nit this playing with firearms has, to my nind, weakened our whole foreign position

in Manchuria. I maintain the Chinese are less afraid of foreigners individually than they were before the comma; of the Cossack. I

leelare the Cossack is the first European to

have been grappled with and overpowered, and. I have heard say. bound by a street crowd. This is because of drink, of course. But in an unfriendly country eoldiers should

only be soon in fighting trim. Then comes the other point : Tlovv do you English make siii'h a good line without soldier.-'. 'and, save for a few leaders, altogether by native labour? If the one can do so, why not the other? This.

:pemf to mo, is the scoret of our present

uiti-foreign movement. J fried to explain o our county magistrate lately the 25 years'

lease of this so-called llus.-uan railway. But lie laughed mo to senni. He docs not believe a word of it. It is another instance of the dishoae?i-y of foreign dealings with China.

And this is why people are turning to Japan to see if there is any hope from her. Here it is a daily nuisance—the talk of war between Japan and Russia. Merchants come to us to know if a Japanese fleet has been to Talienwan, where Russia's new harbour for the railway terminus is to be; or. if a Japanese fleet ' has sailed for Corea; or if there is not actually war now in Corea between the land forces " What do the peeple want with this war?" I asked a Chinaman lately. " Well, you see, they have a notion the Japanese would take possession of this country and the railways."

I "And they would rather have the Japanese than the Russians?" ".Certainly, the sympathies of the majority here would be with the Japanese." What, you ask me, of their own magistrate?—i.e., the Chinese authorities? Well, I suppose you would get a frank answer in our streets—our own magistrates are even worse since the v.-ay than they, were before it (and that was bad), so we don't care what becomes of them. One sees in this light the altered position of Russia. You thfnk her invulnerable because she has occupied Manchuria. You think she can advance from that to dominate Peking. That means, then, that she must absorb Japan. One cannot hope any longer for a resuscitated China. But ho is a bold spirit who could contemplate the effaeement of Japan from among 1 the mpst powerful European factors. Therefore, I think that an element of peace has been introduced into our Western politics by the fact that Russia will have to walk warily in the East and in the West. " Suppose Europe were to dictate in the matter of this Boer war .at the present juncture," said a Russian to me tho other day: "Europe could not move a finger in the present prepared state of Britain, was my.reply. "Might not Russia throw troops into India?" he addad. "Yes; catch you in an European war and the Japanese will wipe you out of Manchuria, and laugh at you. ' The Russian assented.