the following from a con-
"\What purports to be an official statement of Russian policy in China is published in the form of an' interview with Count Lamsdortt, The i ign Minister is made to say that so far as Russia is concerned the Chinese incident is at an end, but a prompt and final settlement between China and the other Powers cannot be obtained so long as any foreign troops retain in the country. As regards Manchuria, the proper i jection to Rus-at the time the ited, years ago. Does anyone suppose thai a Power would build railway through such a country and leave it unprotected for every wild band of brigands to swoop down on it just as they leased."
More than five years ago—on the 8rd of March, 1896—we published the heads of the secret treaty between Ru: ud China in accordance with which Russia was allowed to extend her Trans-Siberian Railway to Port Arthur, and we subsequently published the Cassini Convention, which was the perfected form of this secret treaty. Our Legation at_Peking and the Foreign Office in London received the news with the us incredulity. It was quite enough for the Russian Mini: gu Affairs denied the existence of any guch treaty, Sir Nicholas O'Conor, then our Minister at Peking, wrote to the British Consul-General here that he did' not think much of our secret treaty and hoped we did not pay too much for it, We knew "that it was of—such importance that we telegraphed it to the "Times," which published it also on the 3rd of March with the contemptuous introduction: " Among the English in China the belief in a secret treaty between China and Russia, facilitating the advance of the latter to the Gulf of Pechili, seems to be proof against all official and semi-official denials. As an illustracion of current rumour, we give the following telegram which received last night from Shanghai, from which it is evident that the inventors of current reports have more imagination than knowledge." Not only have subsequent occurrences proved to the hilt the correctness of the information we gave, and the wilful blindness of our diplomatists at Peking and at home, and of the highly-trained gentlemen who direct the foreign department of the "Times but now we find Count Lamsdorff cynically declaring that "as regards Manchuria, the proper time to make any objection to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.