THE AROUSING OF THE CHINESE GIANT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8832, 19 January 1907, Page 2

THE AROUSING OF THE CHINESE GIANT.

Will Japan Secure Manchuria ? (By F. A. M'KENZIE, in the "Daily Mail-") Manchuria is the fulcrum of the levei that has moved China. What is to be the future of that province P Is it to be Chinese, Russian or Japanese? Will it be open to the world or a preempted corner for the trade of the favoured Powers? In England one regarded these questions as settled for the time by the Treaty of Portsmouth. In Pekin I found that scarcely was the ink dry on that treaty before a silent, secret diplomatic battle had begun. In Mukden and in Harkin I was able to 'see how the answers to the problems are working themselves out. Take tho case of Harbin. Geographically, Harbin is in the Chinese Empire. Had you posted a letter two months ago from London addressed to that city, it would have been sent by sea to Shanghai, a thirty days' journey. Thence it would have been taken to Newchang, where the Chinese postal authorities, knowing that they had no, communication between Newchang and Harbin, would have returned it to England. Your letter would never have reached Harbin; but that is a minor fact about which St Martin's-le-Grand could not be expected to trouble itself too much. A RUSSIAN CITY IN CHINA. Actually, despite geography books and post offices, Harbin is Russian, within eleven days' reach of Moscow. One sees fewer Orientals in its main streets than in American cities like Honolulu. You search in vain for a Chinese official, and you could as easily do business by talking Chinese in London as there. Harbin is a crudely splendid European style modern city, with palaces that might stand in Berlin,, with homes fit for the comfortable suburbs of Moscow, and with streets i whose broad pavements are worthy of only the Dark Ages. It .has been built \x__t out of nothing in a few years, in the erstwhile desert, and desolat-s plains of interior Manchuria. Harbin arose as a railway town. It saw its time of great prosperity when a | war headquarters, playing the same part for the Russians as Capetown did during the Boer war for us. It has miles of fine streets, with hundreds of good shops. Not long since it boasted the possession of a hundred music-halls and eight theatres and opera houses. Russian capital has built up its industries, and the money of the Russian taxpayer has met the cost of the palatial railway station, the lines of villas, the ornate official buildings, the great , bridges, and the many streets. Your J hotel servants are Russian, your cabdriver is Russian, your newspaper is Russian, and Russian is the only language in which you can transact your affairs. During the past few weeks there has been a dramatic move, unheralded and unnoticed by the English people, whioh has added materially to the problem of Harbin. At the close of September the repairs to the old line of railway from Dalny to Harbin were completed, and service between the Russian and Japanese spheres of influence in Manchuria was begun. At the same time Japanese subjects were allowed northwards. An army of their men, guised as petty traders, at once swept up. Already between five hundred and a thousand Japanese ars eettled in Harbin. They are engaged in all kinds of work, making a living where a white man would starve. WHO IS TO ASSUME CONTROL? What is to become of Harbin? The Russian military authorities are preparing, with all apparent sincerity, to give up their control. They have now, so far as I can judge, not more at the outside than thirty thousand soldiers in and around the city. They say that they will have all their troops away except the railway guards by the end of the year. What then?. Who is to assume chief power ? It is unthinkable that a great white settlement like this should be permitted to revert to semi-anarchy. The future of Harbin is one of the problems over which Chinese and Russian diplomats have been fighting for months. '' The Chinese do not want another Shanghai in their Empire, ;an imperium in imperio controlled by foreign consuls. Yet thie is the most probable solution of tbe matter. Then there is -a second difficulty— the punishment of the Hung-hutzes, the original brigands of Manchuria. These brigands were freely employed by both Russians and Japanese during the war. They obtained large quantities of modern weapons and abundant ammunition. At present they are a serious menace to trade and to travel. I journeyed through the heart of the brigand district in September. From Mukden to Quan-chun-tzu stories of outrage poured in on me. Stopping at a small town one afternoon, I started for a walk in .the surrounding country. Some Chinamen at once came up to me^ begging me not to go, lest " bad men, the Hung-huteee, should kill me. When I continued my walk they followed, repeating their warnings.. The Japanese would not permit me to move northwards without a substantial military escort, with rifle magazines charged and bayonets fixed.. I found that the Japanese soldiers living m Chinese j houses inland had built earthworks I around their homes, on account of banj dit bullets coming through at night. I The Chinese have, so far, been unable !to control these bandits. A portion of | Viceroy Yuan's army has been moved up against them/ but they are so fleet, so adept at disguise, and co well mount- ! Ed, that capture is difficult. China has a very hard problem here. There are ! plain signs that Japan contemplates I using China's difficulty to increase her i hold on tbe land. "If you cannot keep your robbers in check we must do it 1 for you," the Japanese _ are saying. They are already beginning to send little expeditionary parties of troops out from the railway line to capture bandit groups. They will do so more and more. JAPAN'S WAY OF DOING BUSINESS. Every Chinese official with whom I discussed Manchurian affairs was con- ! vinoed that Japan means to seoure predominance in that province. Whatever ambitions Russia had have been surrendered for the time, perforce, because of internal weakness. Japan is, at the beginning of her strength. Chinese officialdom has been greatly hurt by the long delay of the Japanese in surrendering the control of the Manchurian telegraphs, as they are bound to do.. When I was in Japan m June, the Chinese telegraph commissioners, specially appointed to arrange the transfer, had been in Tokio for a month, and had accomplished during that time absolutely nothing. We came here to do business, they said. "We have been splendidly entertained. Every day a banquet is provided for ua; every day there are carriages to take us to something arranged in our honour ; and every morning a Japanese official comes to know what more can . be done for us. But wo did not come here for feasts or excursions. We came to secure the return of our telegraphs. Japan, will not do business about that. The Chinese are further uneasy on

acoount of the manner in which Japan is establishing material rights of all kinds in Manchuria. Many thousands of Japanese citizens are settling along the main roadtf. All the railways in the centre and south are Japanese, and new Japanese lines are being begun in various parts. .Military supremacy has been used as a pretext for securing the compulsory purchase of great tractei of land at important sites, such as Newchwang and Antung, at prairie prices. All along the railways are blockhouses, with Japanese soldiers . in them. _ In Antung the Japanese military administration has" been cleverly playing on the interests of the inner group .of rich traders who control the city, to place them in hostility to the Tartar general at Mukden. The Chinese administrators say that all these can only have one nieaning. "Unless we stir ourselves," more than one of them has told me, " Manchuria will pass from us. Mongolia will follow Manchuria, and then what can save our Empire?" They are no longer afraid of Russia, but they are afraid of Japan. They distrust her intentions, and dread her friendship. When Japan offers them gifts, they fear either to accept -or -refuse. They remember what has happened in Korea, and how fair words and kind promises were the beginnings of national expropriation, and extinction.