Mar, 31
THe interest of the letter which we publish this morning from our Harbin correspondent is greatly increased by the news telegraphed two days ago from Peking of an agreement between China and the Russo-Asiatic Bank for the construction of a railway from Harbin to Blagovestehensk. Our—correspondent says that there is a persistent rumour in Harbin to the effect that the Harbin-Changchun section of the Chinese Eastern Railway is about to be transferred to Japan. A few years ago such a report would have been scouted as altogether improbable and even to-day, had it appeared without the collateral support of the agreement just concluded, it would probably have found few believers. Aniongst them is our correspondent himself, who was doubtless aware that the Harbin-
Bihgovestchensk agreement was under consideration, and whilst it would be rash to argue conclusively from the one to the other it cannot be denied that the agreement makes the report all the more credible. The visit of Grand Duke George Michailovitch to Japan a short time back was recognized as being an event of considerable diplomat importance and gave rise to numerous speculations which in some quarters crystallized into confident affirmations of a Russo-
Japanese alliance. It may well be, therefore, that the new agreement is the first fruits of the Grand Duke's visit, in which case the transfer of the Harbin-
Changchun section of the Chinese Eastern Railway was probably discussed and possibly arranged for. Russia and Japan have been drawing steadily closer for a long time past and the circumstances their rapprochement must necessarily take the form of eliminating possible points of friction. With the Harbin-Changehun ___railway still in Russian hands it would be in Mongolia that these would be most likely to occur.
Before going more fully into 8 aspect of Russo-Japanese relations, however, we may pause to consider the salient features of the new line, The main line from Harbin to Blagovestchensk is to have a branch running' through Tsitsihar and Morgen, that is to say along the left bank of the Nonni, an affluent of the Sungari, which it enters a hundred miles south of Harbin. The Nonni is navigable by large junks and small steamers as far as Tsitsihar and by smaller craft up to Morgen, which is a little over hundred miles southwest of Blagovestehensk on the Amur: river. Whether the river is golden beyond the dreams of avarice asa well known author has described it, only the future can show. The probability is that it is not, for nothing is more certain than that the mineral wealth of this as of other parts of China has been very greatly exaggerated. The province of Heilungkiang asa whole, nevertheless, is a rich one and with river and rail ting in conjunction its devel ment should, when the line completed, proceed apace. Tsitsillar, or P'ukuei as the Chinese, all it, forms an outlet for a good deal of north-Mongolian trade and has on that account an elastic population which, during the months of September and October, varies anywhere between thirty and seventy thousand souls. Morgen is a smaller place, with a population of little more than three thousand, a number which in years to come will be looked back upon, probably, a8 wholly inadequate indication of the town's potentialities. To reach Blagovestchensk the line will have to pass through Aigan on the right bank of the Amur, straggling town some six miles in length with a population of sixty thousand, This was to have been the terminus of a line starting from Chinchow, west of Newchwang, to be built with American capital. The ent was actually signed by China but successfully vetoed by Russin and Japan. There is no point in resuscitating to-day a question which aroused considerable feeling at the time, nevertheless it is interesting to note that a good stretch of the Harbin-Blagovestchensk railway follows precisely the same route. "That fact brings us back to the brotd subject with which we started and the point on which emphasis should be laid is that since the collapse of the Chinchow-Ai railway both Russia and Japan have acquired new interests. The Urga Convention andthe agreement concluded at lite towards the end of last year have given Russia a firm hold over Outer Mongolia; the Japanese demands have done the same thing for Japan in regard to Eastern Inner Mongolia. Tt can scarcely be contended that these latter phases of the Mongolian question were foreseen at the time of the Chinchow-\igun railway scheme; still they throw a strong additional light on the policy of the two Powers at that time. It must even than have been realized that the future of Russo-Japanese relations lay, not in Manchuria, but in the vast country over which China claim-suzerainty yet exercised very slight control. Step by step, accordingly, China's powerful neighbours have drawn together until to-day the destinies of Mongolia lie in their hands. The new railway agreement, followed Driginal from UN
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.