The Opunake Times. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1905. SAGHALIEN.

Opunake Times, Volume XXII, Issue 770, 5 September 1905, Page 2

The Opunake Times. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1905. SAGHALIEN.

The island of Saghalien, which was a bone of contention in the Russo Japan peace negotations, does not possess natural resources of much value, but it has for its possessor great strategic importance. It forms the last link in the chain of islands which completely encloses the Russian provinces on the Amur and excludes them from the Pacific. It also commands the mouth of the Amur river, which is navigable, when free from ice, for a length of 2,400 miles, and in its more southerly course the river is at all times free from ice, and is consequently a navigable inland waterway which a few powerfully equipped armoured gunboats would command. The island does not so completely command the Pacific coast of Kamscbatka, but the extreme northern latitude of the latter and many months that its coasts and harbours are blocked with the Arctic ice exclude it from serious consideration in estimating its strategic value. For hundreds of years the island had formed part of the Empire, and though compelled to acquiesce in its annexation in 1875 by Russia, public sentiment in Japan was deeply moved over its loss, and there was a deep-seated resentment with Russia’s action.