Tuose who have any doubt of Russia's intention to incorporate Manchuria in her Asiatic dominions must surely have their doubt remover if they read the article by Mr. A. R. Colquhoun in the October issue of the "Monthly Review." This "assimilation," as Mr. Colquhoun calls it, is undoubtedly a "gigantic tusk," but Russia is going about it with a will, The railways to Vladivostock and te Port Arthur had to Manchuria: a pretext was made of the ass through the great wedge of
attacks by Chinese on Manchuriao railways, followed by reprisals and the awful massacre of Blagovestchens, which disgusted even the better class of Russians themselves. Then came the rejection by China of the Manchurian Convention, "whereupon Russia, on the principle of "heads I win, tails you lose,' was able to declare that if she could not have the safeguard of such a convention, she must adopt strenuous measures to protect her interests and maintain along her frontier."
Russia has now, say Mr. Colquhoun on the strength of figures given him by Russian staff officers, over two hundred thousand men quartered in Trans-Baikalia, Amuria, the Primorvsk province, and Manchuria, At Habarovsk alone, three months ago, there were no fewer than twenty-nine generals. "Tire town, only @ small village four yests ago, is spreading rapidly, but the population, about 15,000, is almost entirely governmental and mainly military. The whole place simply bristled with uniforms, the officers were quartered in every house, and were sleeping in every corner of the military club, some six or seven in the billiard-room." Mr. Colquhoun notes the immense sums that are being spent on Port Arthur and Dalny, and adds asa fact which should enlighten those who think that the massacre at Blagoves'chensk and the foreign operations in Chihli must inspire in the Chinese an undying hatred of foreigners, that large numbers of Chinese traders have already gone to Blagovestchensk, and that "Chinese coolies are proceeding in large numbers to Southern Man-buna and to Port Arthur, where, by working under the Muscovites, they ave actually assisting in the Russfication of their own country."
Newchwang, a treaty port, where Russia has no trade whatever, is entirely under Russian domination. The Customs is carried on by Russo-Chinese officials—' men lent from the Chinese Imperial Customs, and trained by Sir Robert Hart, who will, nevertheless, wear Russian uniforms." In some places Chinese officials have {been allowed to resume the admi tration of the province, bnt they have been well drilled and holt office at the pleasure of Russia, and in large [regions not Nis'to be foun land Ri ay guards? are everywhere. Russian passes are required tv move about Manchuria, jo Russian tax-collector is established on the Corean frontier, Russians are in charge of the naval docks and shipbuilding yards at Kirin. Russian bazaars are replacing the Chinese markets, The mining industry, formerly retained in their own hands by the Chinese Government, has passed entirely into those of Russian syndicates; land reclamation in the neighbourhood of the rivers is being carried out by Russian engineers, the large junk traffic on the Manchurian rivers is being re-plassed by Russian steamers and barges; enormous sums of money being spent throughout Manchuri and wages have risen from 50 to 100 percent. So rapid, in fact, is the process of transformation thas except in the outlying parts little remains of the old regime"
Meanwhile Russia is making heroic efforts to supply the great want of her Eastern Asiatic possessions, popvlation. Over a quarter ofa million immigrants were brought last year along the Trans-Siberian railway and down the Amur river. They must be pure Kussians, neither Finns, Poles, nor Germans are eligible. They are given enormous tracts of land with agricultural implements and cattle, and money is advanced them, nominally repayable in a term of of years. But they do not take indly to work. "'The very advantages of his new home over his old, in fertility and salubrity of climate, seem to sink the mov in a slough of content—he knows nothing of the divine discontent' which might raise him to even better things; for life, or rather existence. is easy. He lacks education whick might develop his imagination, and he becomes a mere animal warmed by the sun in summer, and by the big log-fire which costs nothing in winter."
Mr. Colquhoun writes admiringly of Blagovestchensk with its fine shops, hotels, and churches, and broad, straight streets, He mentions the purely Chinese interior towns of Manchuria, "very busy and prosperous, for as the Manchu aristocracy drifted south, the energetic traders of Shan-yung pushed up north." The country is still much infested by brigands, but there is no "war" in Manchuri no organised resistance. Military circles there are only exercised about relations with Japan.
"The weak point in the whole system of Russian rule and administration in the East is that the movement is artificial y stimulated. All the impetus comes from the Government, which initiates, carries out, and absi'lises every thing." The colonists have no ambition, and do nothing whatever to help themselves; hardly anywhere are there schools: for their children to learn to read and writs The great fear of the Russians is that there will be an influx of Chinese, and even Japanese, who would entirely swamp and supersede the Muscovites by the force of their energy, perseverance, and adaptability." The Chinvse cannot be crushed down as the small Central Asian tribes have been. They are a homogeneons people of unrivalled tenacity and persistence.
Pranorsk and Amuria are being neglected, Vindivostock has been almost ruined, and a similar fate is destined for Newchwang, in order to make Dalny, a splendid city with, as yet, no inhabitants, the great commercial port of Eastern Asia. Mr. Colquhoun is eloquent on the wonderful progress made in Trans-Buaikalia, and even more between Irkutsk and Europe, in the last two years. Irkutsk itself is one of the richest cities in all Russia. " From Viadivostock to Moscow, in an almost unbroken line, first at some little distance, then closer, then in an uninterrupted stream, one sees the shaggy moujik and his flaxen-haired children. Not only has a band of steel been laid from West to East, but a human band of men who wear the same clothes, speak the same tongue, and bow down to the same God, as he is pictured on the same rude icons," Mr. Colquhoun adds that the number of trains passed every day one speeds along in the train de luce is extraordinary, and every train is crowded. "The Trans-Siberian has fully justified the expectations of its originators in opening up the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.