9th October.
Tur September issue of this useful journal is almost entirely devoted to the question, of Russian aggression on North China. In his " Current Comment," Mr. Foord points out that it is improbable that the two ports in Manchuria to be opened by the American Commercial Treaty "with China will be really opened to foreign trade before the treaty has been formally ratified, while it is not unlikely that the opening has been made conditional on Russia's fulfilment of her pledge to terminate yesterday her armed occupation of Manchuria, Referring to Article VILL of the British treaty and the stipulation that it, and Article XI relating to the prohibition of the general importation of morphia into. China, shall not come into force until all the other Treaty Powers have agreed to them, Mr Foord points out thet the present outlook for such a general agreement cannot be said to be encouraging. "There has been no trustworthy indication, so far, of the attitude of Japan, Germany and France in regard to them, thongl the substantial acceptance by the American Commissioners of—Sir James Mackay's plan for the revision of the system of Chinese taxation, marks an important step towards such an agreement. A little too much may have been made here of the great diplomatic victory" in~ volved in securing the opening of the new Manchurian treaty ports, but the resolute insistence on this point by our Department of State was a highly practical method of compelling Russia to show her hand, and of leaving her no choice between either withdrawing opposition to" demand so reasonable, or frankly repudiating all the assurances of purely disinterested concern for the future of Manchuria with which her representatives have so copiously favoured this Government "—withont, we may add, succeeding in hoodwinking Mr. Hay for a moment.
Baron Schlippenbach, the Russian Consul at Chicago, has, it appears, been showing the real value of these Labour Law. It is to expose our-assurances. He has blurted out the selves to the ridicule of the world to view which obtains in Russian official have our restrictions on immigration circles, which is, that the appointment so narrowly and illiberally construed of a Russian Viceroy of the Far East as to prevent a great international "means the formal incorporation of bank doing business in the Philip-Manchuria in the Russian realm. pines from promoting a member of its While for three years no one has been staff from a less important position to able to say whether Manchuria was one in its branch office at Manila." Chinese or Russian, all that is ended The following were the values of now, and anybody who has business the principal exports from the United there knows with whom he must States to China and Hongkong in deal." The "Journal" reprints Mr. the first seven months of 1902 and Alexander Ular's article on "Russia, 1903, in gold dollars Manchuria, and Mongolia" from the To Cotton Mineral Wheat ne of the "Contemporary cloths. oils. flour. 18,813 2,095,463 150,445 me of the views in which, 16 933,969 106,502 obviously well-informed as Mr. Ular is, Mr. Foord characterises as rather 17,146 697, L14 2,069,095 fanciful!, "For example, he (Mr.
1903. 5 33,239 Ular) maintains that the Russian We have dealt. so fully with Mr. regime in Manchuria will cause no Foord's editorial! columns that we injury to the development of the have to pass lightly aver the remain-commercial enterprises of England ing contents of the "Journal." There and the United States, because the are a number of useful extracts from economic motives of Russian expan-U. S. Consular notes on trade in the sion in the Far East are of quite a Malay States, Wuchou, British India, different nature to those which are ete, Mr. Miller at Newchwang notes guiding the other Powers in China the rapid and successful extension of Russia wants to be master of the flour-milling at Harbin; the produc-North China provinces, not in the tion in June last was already 1,474 hope of finding there new markets for barrels a day; the flour is gradually her industrial products, but on the controlling the Manchurian market contrary, new centres of industrial and will soon come into competition products. She wants an amalgamawith American flour at Port Arthur. tion of Chinese industry with the There is a long description of the Russian peasant system, and not a wonderful city of Dalny, and some mere commercial conquest. This is remarks on the intended Custom-ull so directly at variance with the house there. Mr. Greener, the U. S. expressed views of Russian mannfac~ Commercial Agent at Viadivostock, turers, and with the whole trend writes that "Russian goods are of the commercial policy of Mr. de beginning to compete with English Witte, as to cust. serious doubts on goods in the Asiatic markets with the ty of a witness some success. especially in Corea whose testimony must be adm) and in the vicinity of the Chinese tu be of a character decide a boundary." On the other hand, he tional." The remainder of "Current, gives the following figures of the Comment" is taken up with a con-value of the exports from European demnation of Collector Shuster's re-Russia to the Pacific ports in the last fusal to allow the Chartered Bank in Ma '0 import a sub-accountant to fill a vacancy in its branch there.
"The whole episode brings out very 1902 37,704,000, strongly," says Mr, Foord, " the need After Mr. Ular's article already of a little common-sense for the suc-referred to, there are some very rendcessful performance of such a task as able extracts from letters by a corres-that which we have set for ours
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.