it will at the very least deprive it Jot the major importance which up to the present it has had.
The change is inevitable and the indications are that it will Ino means slow. It may, therefore, bbe expected that a grave problem will be presented as to what can possibly be done for the large Jnumbers of Russians who, having jin the past received their sustenlance from the railway in one way Jor another, will find their means of livelihood gone. The question of the fate of the White Russian refugee has caused a great deal of anxiety in the past. To a certain extent it was solving itself in the rise of a new generation better Jable to meet the conditions which existed in such places as Harbin, but the changes which may be expected will deprive even them of the meagre chances they at present possess. There is, unfortunately, little prospect to be held out to them of a betterment by removal to other cities in China. These latter appear to have absorbed as Russian families up to saturation point, and even in their case the process of assimilation is slow and laborious, though, undoubtedly, jit is taking place. The changes which are thus foreseen in Harbin Jappear already to have been anticipated. That is borne out by the correspondent's statement that more English is being taught for the purpose of dealing with the Japanese railway servants who Jmay be expected to know that language and not necessarily Russian. It is expected that more English will be used in: the shops, and that the city itself will in time assume more of the aspect of /Mukden and Dairen. It is not a particularly happy thought that the picturesqueness of Harbin must, therefore, in time fade away, but that seems a minor consideration as compared with the problem as ito what will happen to: those Russians who, deprived of a chance to return to their native land, may be expected to find living even harder in the future than it has been in the past
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.