DALNY.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1041, 6 November 1903, Page 1

DALNY.

A PERFECT CITY WITHOUT INHABITANTS, RUSSIA’S PARADOXICAL CREATION,

London, Oct. 1. Thrre stands a little to the east of .Port Arthur, on the Liaotung Peninsula, the most remarkable city in the world. It is Dalny, the new terminus of the great Trans-Sibe-rian Railway. It is as yet a city without inhabitants. Save for masons and workmen its streets are deserted as those of a decaying village. . In it the Russians are building houses and administrative offices for a population which is yet to .come, and are erecting great docks for a trade which -does not exist.

Dalny is the paradox of cities. It was forced into existence, not because men in the course of human progress found it convenient to meet and trade there, but because M. de Witte, the Russian Finance Minister on the far-distant Neva, ordered, “ Build me a “city.” Dalny is the lifeless body of a city, but thronging citizens will vitalise it. It might be called the modern City of Aladdin —M.- de Witte rubbed the lamp—were were it not that it end the railway whose terminus- it is were -b-uild-ed, not in a night, but under tremendous difficulties. The extraordinary fact is that this Russian railway, which has been one of the greatest factors in m.aking Manchur a virtually a Russian province, was possible only by the labor of the Chinese themselves. And thousands of Chinese coolies, under ,hundreds of Russian architects, engi-

neers, and overseers, are building Dalny. Politically England regards . with grave apprehension the completion of this railway, which runs through the disputed province of Manchuria. Yetcivilisation and commerce must rejoice tlufcln the Chinese Eastern Railway, as it is officially named, will bring the Pacific coast s-o much nearer to Europe. The Trans-Siberian Railway was a tremendous step towards bridging

the gap between the West and the East, but it was comparatively useless until the Manchurian section was completed. It was necessary to have a large commercial town as a terminus, and M. de Witte conceived the tremendous idea of building one. Dalny is the result. To the East its silent streets look out on Corea Bay. Behind it, to the west, is the Galf of Liaotung, and to the south-west is the Gulf of Pcchili. •across which, the Tientsin steamers run. When China leased Port Arthur and the Liaotung Peninsula to Russia, she guaranteed that Talienwan should be a free port. Dalny is the city on Talienwan Bay which is to be the free port in Russian territory. Looking into the future, M. de Witte made every, possible arrangement dor the personal comfort and business of Dalny's inhabitants. Streets, drainage, and electric wires were laid down, electric lights and telephones were installed, parks, gardens, electric trams, municipal buildings, hospitals, schools, prisons, docks, and jetties were provided before a single lot of land was offered to the public Tor purchase. The original estimate of the cost has. long since been exceeded. That Dalny will be peopled and will flourish is as certain ' as anything mundane can be. Its harbor is ice Tree, a great factor for success in North China. Newchwang, the only, other Manchurian port, is frozen fast for more than four months in the year. Besides, Dafny is a free port ; it is the terminus of the railroad, and it possesses all the conveniences of a modern city. Merchants who settle there will have nothing of hardship to fear, as if Dalny ■were an ordinarily newly-formed settlement. Radiating from the municipal buildings run avenues named after the various nations, and at the end of each avenue will be a national church.

The city has been and will be governed by the civil and not by the military authorities. It needs now no prophetic eye to see at Dalny trains from Moscow and St. Peterscarrying passengers from all pvpr the world, running alongside steamers from Japan, China, America and Australia, passengers and goods having to be transferred only a few yards from train to steamer, or vice versa.