Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY JULY 16, 1908

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9795, 15 July 1903, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY JULY 16, 1908

RUSSIA'S EGYPT. It is tolerably certain by tliis time that the Russian occupation of Manchuria will be permanent. The Powers may protest and even back their protest with some show of force, but the Russian Government will .sit tight and hold on to the territory that it lias so artfully grabbed. Manchuria is to all intents and purposes Russian property. Russia holds the railways, -every means of communication, food supplies, and possesses the illimitable resources placed at her disposal by the Siberian railway. The complete Russincation of the whole of Northern China can only be a mutter of time. It is interesting to review the situation and the steps leading up to the acquisition, for it gives an insight into Russian diplomacy. Russia got leave to build her Manchurian railway as a return for good oitices m preventing Japan from reaping the full reward of hor victory over China m 1895. With this concession, she obtained practical control of the three war harbors of Port Arthur, Talienwan and Kiaochow. Taking advantage of the Boxer outbreak three years ago, she fully occupied Manchuria, ostensibly to protect the workmen on her railway. At the close of the outbreak .she signed an agreement to withdraw from the province witliin a year and a half, and so restore it to its place us an integral part of the Chinese Empire. This agreement was a consequence of the Anglo-American demand for "an open doorj" which Sir Michael Hicks-Beach threatened would be maintained m China ''even at the cost of wax 1 ," and of the Anglo-Japanese treaty. In pretended obedience of that agreement, it was officially reported m September last that the evacuation of Manchuria had begun. A few weeks later it appeared that the evacuation was more fictitious than real, and that Russia had decided to remain m the country to "guard" her railway and other interests that she had been rapidly developing. Every railway station was made a fort, and Russia clearly showed her intention to make use of the concessions which gave her power to place a million troops, if she likes, on her railways m China. Nothing more surely demonstrated her purpose than the building of the superb seaport town of Dalny, close to Port Arthur, as an alternative port to Vladivostock, which is so far north as to be ice-bound for a long period of the year. The next move was recorded on April 23, when news came from Pekin that Russia had virtually demanded of China the cession of the sovereignly of Manchuria. The demands, as presented to the Chinese Foreign Office by the Russian Charge d' Affairs, are given as follows: "First, no more Manchurian ports or towns are to be opened ; second, no more foreign consuls to be admitted to Manchuria.'; third, no foreigners, except Russians, to be employed m the public service of Manchuria; fourth, the present status of the administration of Manchuria .to remain unchanged ; fifth, the customs receipts at the port of Newchwang are to be given to the RussoChinese Bank ; sixth, a sanitary commission is to be organised under Russian control ; seventh, Russia is entitled to attach the telegraph wires and poles of all Chinese lines m Manchuria ; and eighth, no territory m Manchuria is to be alienated to any other power." In view of the existing treaties, such action laid the necessity of protest upon Great Britain, Japan, and the United States. Japanese warships were immediately ordered to the Manchurian coast. Great Britain and the United States' at once instituted official enquiries. It was announced from London a few days later that the Chinese Government had sent to St. Petersburg a formal refusal to the demands. The Russian Government responded with a denial of having made the first three and the seventh of the demands as given above. The American Ambassador was informed by the Russian Foreign Minister that the published reports of the demands were absolutely incorrect; that the Russian Government had no intention to exclude other countries from advantages now enjoyed m Manchuria ; that the United States might be sure that nothing would be done to close doors now open ; and, that American commerce and American capital were what Russia most desires to attract. Similar announcements were made m the British House of Commons. Despite the fact that the world had Russia's official denials, all the information that came from China confirmed the first reports, and the latest advices to hand from Dr Morrison, the well-informed correspondent of the ' London Times, are to the effect that Manchuria has become absolutely and irrevocably Russian territory. The door has been shut — slammed m the faces of the protesting Powers— and to show that she means to keep it shut, Russia is to-day pouring her troops by the thousands into Port Arthur, maintaining off the coast a formidable navy. Future developments of the situation, especially m the direct tion of any attempted absorption of Korea, m which Japan has such large interests, will be awaited with anxiety. American feeling runs strong upon the matter, but the probability is that that country, with others interested, will accept the inevitable and admit that Russian duplicity has triumphed. These facts, stated by Mr Archibald Colquhoun the other day, must be quietly recognised: "The Slav will never abandon Manchuria ; the Russian railway stations m Manchuria are Russian forts; the St. Petersburg newspapers are already dating their Manchurian despatches from 'Russian China' ; absolutely no reliance can ever be placed upon the assertions or denials of Russian officials — the Slav is an Oriental; he lies with exquisite finesse."