RUSSO-CHINESE CRISIS

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1087, 28 March 1911, Page 5

RUSSO-CHINESE CRISIS

* * ~ CHINA BACKS DOWM By Tcleeraph—Press Association—Copy richt St. Petersburg, March 2G. Russia's ultimatum to China expires ou Tuesday next. UNRESERVED ACQUIESCENCE. Peking, March 2G. China has informed Russia of her un- , reserved acquiescence ill regard to tho Russian demands. THE POINTS IN DISPUTE. The English mail yesterday afternoon brought further details of tho origin of the crisis in Russo-Chinese relations. On lehniary 15 it was announced that Russia, in eonsequonce of the continual disregard by China of tho treaty concluded in 1831 between tho two countries with regard to the Hi region, in Chinese Turkestan, had arranged for a military occupation of tho district. By this treaty Russia agreed to cvacuate tho Hi region, which she had occupied in 1871, in return for Consular and commercial privileges .within tho said regions and Mongolia, and in ,Manchuria, including rights ■ of navigation on the Rivers Amur, Sungari, and Ussuri. .. The Treaty was re- ■ iiewed by _ decades, unless notice were given by either side of a desire to revise tho terms between February 24 and August 24—a conjuncture which matures in the present year. The Hi district, of which Kuldja is the capital, forms but a small part of the great outlying Chinese province of Turkestan, and it' lies open, on its'western frontier, to .the Semirechensk province of Russian Turkestan. From the military point of vitnv .(says "The Times") it would doubtless be an easy matter for Russia to resume possession of this district, and the transfer from Chinese to Russian rule of a relatively small area of territory in so remote a corner of Central Asia would -in itself hardly bo a matter of fi,rijt-rato importance. Russia, it must b'e remembered, has already once before occupied,. Jli for a period of ten years—from 1871 to 1881—and its restoration to Chinese rule is one of the very few diplomatic successes achieved by China since she entered into relations with the "outer barbarians." The Chinese authorities are alleged to have systematically disregarded, of lale years, the rights conceded to . Russian , merchants and'Veside'nts-beyond 'the-Great' Wall, and to have taken administrative measures deliberately' designed to render the residence of Russians impossible, even in those cities ill which their treaty rights are beyond dispute. The Russians at the. same time demand the appointment of Consular officers at three important mints in. Turkestan, together with the unfettered o.tei'ciso of Consular jurisdiction wcr Russian subjects. .