THE RUSSIANS IN MANCHURIA.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 923, 9 June 1877, Page 3

THE RUSSIANS IN MANCHURIA.

A question recently asked m the House of Commons respecting the movements of the Russian war lleet in the Pacific provoked an ironical laugh from the benches, and the comforting assurance" from the First Lord of the Admiralty that, °so far as he knew, not the least danger existed of any rupture of the friendly relation between G-reat Britain and Russia. Accepting this satisfactory piece of intelligence from so high a quarter as perfectly well founded, it may yet be allowed us to observe that the general run of members in the House of Commons do not appear to have any very clear apprehension of the extent of the 'Czar's dominions in the Pacificwaters. The acquisitioa of the entire terri-

toiy of Eastern Manchuria, with all the seaports between the Amur and Golden Horn, is a fact in recent Russian history that has scarcely yet made itself plain to the apprehension of British governing personages. Yet it is an incident that dates so far back as 1860 ; and the manner in which this cession of territory was brought about although in the highest degree creditable to Muscovite diplomacy, hardly squared with the severer ethics of international law. The region, in fact, is but little known even to British geographers and accurate information respecting it will be found in the very latest and most authentic English gazetteers and atlases. But the Russians know it well. It is an annual custom at St Petersburg to hold an exhibition, at the Einperor's winter palace, of all topographical maps, survey charts, and other cartographic documents illustrating the progress of the empire during during the year ; and none of the maps displayed at the last exhibition in December, 1876, attracted more attention or interest than the surveyors' sketch-map of Manchuria, with plans of the naval settlement at Vladivostok. Some account of this new Russian war port in the Pacific was given in our columns so long back as January last. Since [then, however, later intelligence respecting it has come to us by way of EurojDe. The German corvette Hei'tha—whose visit some weeks ago to our own waters will be fresh in the recollection of our readers—visited Vladivostok in the course of her cruise northwards, and an account of what her officers saw there is published in the German geographical journals. From these reports we learn that the original intention of the Russians to make at that point a first-class naval station, commanding both the Northern and Southern Pacific, has been to a great extent frustrated by various physical hindrances. There is, it is true, a small flotilla stationed there at this moment, but it consists of only 10 or 12 advice boats, gunboats, and transports, manned by a force of about 2500 men. The town of Vladivostok itself, although originally laid out on a grand scale, and given a very grand name (" Dominion of the East"), is not of great importance. It extends for a considerable distance along the bay, and is picturesquely situated on the high steep cliffs overhanging the blue waters. Viewed from seaward the situation is undeniably a very fine one. It is a good harbor, enclosed within high wooded hills, at the foot of which some rich soil, capable of producing European vegetables, is found. But there are many and serious drawbacks to the successful settlement of the region by the Muscovite. The country behind the town is swampy and mountainous, being still for the most part covered with the dense primeval forests, abounding in wild deer, pheasants, and other game. The supply of timber is inexhaustible, and includes the oak, the elm, walnut, and maple, and other varieties valuable in commerce. The only thing to be met with in the shape of local industries are a few sawmills. Agriculture, even on the smallest scale, there is none. Such vegetables as the population requires arc grown by a small number of Chinese and Coreans, who have found their way to the place. All the supplies for the population are imported by seven commercial firms, three of which are Germans. A submarine telegraph connects the settlement on one side with Nagasaki in Japan, and on the other side with Shanghai, so that there is uninterrupted communication between the station and St. Petersburg. But the interior is impenetrable. The only road as yet formed is practicable for led horses alone, a carriage way being out of the question. There is a dry dock in course of construction, but as the harbor is closed up by ice from November to March, vessels needing refitting or repairs can enter during r only seven months of the year. Beyond the importation of provisions and naval stores there is no trade whatsoever. The total number of vessels entered in 1872 was only 18, with an aggregate tonnage of 2789 |tons ; in 1875, the vessels had increased to 31, and the tonnage to 12,721 tons. An enterprising American firm has joined a local German firm in prospecting for alluvial gold, but as yet no discoveries of the precious metal have been reported. Taken as a whole, Vladivostok has been unquestionably one of the Russian failures, and this fact the national topographers and surveyors both freely admit. Still, the Muscovite is always a person fertile in resources, and of a forward-looking turn of mind. Failing as a naval station, Vladivostok may yet be turned to good account as a colonising settlement. The transportation system, now so completely discredited by all Englishmen, is made a means of extending colonisation by the authorities at St. Petersburg. A portion of the female convicts annually exiled to Siberia from the Russian prisons are drafted off to Manchuria, and are employed as domestic servants, laundresses, and the like humble offices at the military settlements. But many of them find husbands amongst the private soldiers and minor officials at these stations, and the families thus formed, when the term of military or civil service is ended, betake themselves to agricultural or pastoral pursuits upon the vast breadths of arable land lying along the courses of the Amur and the other great rivers. Numbers of small nourishing settlements have thus sprung up in that far corner of Eastern Asia. Amongst these the most prosperous is Blagovescnge on the Amur, lying at the foot of the Kingan Mountains, possessing many comfortable homesteads, a temple after the fixed orthodox type, a public school, and other requisites' of advanced civilisation. Unfortunately the Amur is liable to periodical inundations, so that settlements on its bahksjjj require to lie carefully undertaken. All the Russian villages first estabblished on it have had to be removed to higher ground inland. An attempt is actually being made to carry settlement southwards into China, and even into the jealously-secluded kingdom of Corea. One advantage of the Golden Horn station is that it gives its possessors a good outlook into the Pacific; and already the Russian journals are talking in a strain of sanguine hopefulness of being able, at some not distant day, to secure a more favourable naval position, either on the coast of Corea or on the Japanese island of Tsusima, which posssessos a very good harbor. The announcement was very lately made that the authorities of St. Petersburg had gained, by peaceable treaty with the Japanese, the cessiou of the entire southern part of Saghalien Island, where, no doubt, some practicable harbor may be found. In any case, it is certain that the possession of Eastern Manchuria, whatever its natural disadvantages may be, _ has given the Russians a commanding position in the Pacific ; and this is the fact that most nearly concerns us Australians.