PORT OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13275, 2 September 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

PORT OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN.

Russia, foiled in her efforts to acquire an ice-free pert to the south, has turner toward the north instead, and there, upca* the Arctic Ocean, has opened a new harbour for Potrograd. The war. by do.: inu the Baltic, has forced Russian trade t< see!-; its ancient outlet through Archangel Before the time of Peter the Great. En,-; land used to receive from Archangel ex ports amounting to more than a millioi dollars a yea 1 . But when Peter opent-i" his "window upon Europe," named aftn himself or his patron saint, lie ruthless];, closed the north window opening upon tin Arctic. In recent years it has been re gaining something of its former import ancc, and since the war began it has beei the solo channel through which Englam and France could suonly their need' Ally unless they sent arms around til world and into Russia I.y way of Vladivi stok. Consequently the single track nai row gauge four-hundred-mile railroai running to Archangel has been congested with tratiie and thousands of tons o: munitions and supplies needed at the from have been piled up on the shores of tin White Sea.

What is worse, the channel leading t' \rchangel is blocked with ice for si: months of the year. So the Russian <!■ terniined to open the port still further t< ;he north, but on the open sea, and kej> ice-free by the expiring efforts of tii 'uilf Stream A naval base had beei started in 1893 at Kola Bay or Alexaidrovsk, but the new port of Ekaterina i established beyond this on the Murma or .Norman coast and only sixty-six mile east of the Norwegian boundary.

It is not probable that Ekaterina o Catherine ]>ay will ever become a popula plate of residence, since it is mostly daii tor halt the year, and the region rouiv ■about consists chiefly of barren rocks, fi forests and dismal swamps. But it i some six hundred miles nearer th Atlantic and it is always accessible. To construct a double track railrom 700 miles long through this almost unii habited and very inaccessible Country wa iio easy task in wartime, yet we are toh ;t'has liecn accomplished at the rate of , hundred miles a month and is now ope. to tralfic. It seems, however, tTiat th stretch along the shore of the White Se. is

not yet finished, so goods have to b> ransported by boat from Kandelax t Kem. The rolling stock of the new rail road is mostly American-made. A largi part i>f the roadbed had to be built upoi piles over the marshes and lakes. Where (he new railroad from Petrogra< lirst strikes the White just beltn acm. a new commercial port of Sorok; has been opened for traffic, or will be a

.j'jon as thy Sea is free from ice. Sorok. is much nearer to Pctrograd than the oh •loi't of Arc'nangel or the new port <> Kkatcrina, so it will probably be use* by merchantmen during the open seasoi of summer. At the present time there ar< nearly a hundred vessels waiting in th \Yhite Sea lor the ice to melt so tl.ey cai discharge their cargoes. The port and railroad of Arehange are henceforth to be reserved by tin government for military purposes ex clusively. It is possibly from Archangc that the Russian troops are being dip patched to Marseilles for service ii trance.

The opening of these new ports is o considerable importance to America because all signs point to a ' great increasi of commerce between Russia and tin United States, part of which will find ai entrance through the Arctic Ocean.