THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1903. RUSSIA AND MANCHURIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12649, 29 April 1903, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1903. RUSSIA AND MANCHURIA.

The attitude which Russia is reported to Jiave assumed in respect of the Manclmrian question will not have the effect of enhancing that country's reputation for frankness and straightforwardness in its dealings with other Powers. Under the convention with China that was signed last year it was agreed by Russia

that Manchuria was to be recognised as an integral part of the Chinese Empire and that the right of China to exercise sovereign and administrative powers, as before the occupation by Russian troops, was to be restored. Russia also agreed to evacuate the province of Niu-chwang as soon as the Tientsin Provisional Government should be abolished, or in any case within the second period of six months from the date on which the Convention was signed. As that date was ill the beginning of April, 1902, the period within which Niu-chwang should have been evacuated has already expired. We have lately had one or two excuses offered for the circumstance that tho undertaking into which Russia entered under the Convention has been violated. First, we were told that the delay in effecting the evacuation was due to a desire to establish a Russian claim to certain forestry rights on the Chinese side of the Yalu River. Later on, we were gravely asked to believe that the cause of the delay consisted in a proposal on Russia's part to establish an international sanitary commission to prevent the outbreak of bubonic plague. It is an eloquent proof of the- estimate formed by the Government at St. Petersburg of the child-like simplicity of the other Great Powers that it expected

them to accept these explanations of its omission to observe the terms of the sober agreement into which it had entered. The advice that we have most recently received, that Russia is seeking to impose conditions, not why the evacuation of Niu-chwang should bo delayed, but why the province should be evacuated at all, comes, it may confidently be affirmed, much nearer the truth. Probably enough, Russia is ex-

tremely loth to relinquish the hold she 3ias acquired upon Niu-chwang. But if she has to go she desires to extort terms for the evacuation, quite regardless of the obligations in respect to tho matter which she has solemnly incurred. And so also with regard to Manchuria as a whole. The Russian promises to restore Manchuria to China have been literally fulfilled. But while they have been observed in the letter they hnvo been carried out in such a way as to ensure that Russia's grip upon the 'province is stronger thau it was before her pledges of evacuation were given. Evacuation lias simply moant the concentration of the Russian army of occupation along the Hue of railway, and the line of railway has been so designed as to command every city and every road of importance in Manchuria. And now it is asserted that Russia has informed China that she will take no further steps towards evacuating Manchuria unless upon terms that the sovereignty over the province is practically ceded to her to tho entire exclusion of other nations. It is not clear what virtue there could possibly be in the evacuation of Manchuria if the sovereignty of the province were ceded ta Russia. But it is certain that conditions such as those which the Russian Government is credited with the desire to impose could never be acceptable to some of the Great Powers. Great Britain, the United States, and Japan have already made representations on the subject to China, which had, however, anticipated their protests, Prince Clung, who lately succeeded to the position of ■Grand Secretary; having demonstrated his backbone by refusing absolutely to consider the Russian proposals. Tho situation at tho present time is an interesting one, but even if it be the case that, as the Peking correspondent of The Times wrote in November last, " only armed force—the armed force of some other Power than China—can now drive Russia out of Manchuria," it is hard to believe that, in face of the joint remonstrance of three important Powers, Russia will persist, in her demands. At the same time it must be recognised that, if France is prepared to go to any great lengths in support of her''ally's claim, that circumstance would have an important bearing upon the settlement of the difficultv.