The Russo-Japanese War.

Manawatu Herald, 9 April 1904, Page 3

The Russo-Japanese War.

A recent issue of the Daily Consular Reports, published by the United States Department of Commerce and Labour, throws an instructive sidelight upon the war in East Asia. The report which it contains was written two months before the war began and was, of course, not intended in any sense as a partisan document. It aims simply to give a truthful account of conditions in Manchuria, and it does so with much comprehensiveness and detail. But in so doing it strikingly reveals some of the circumstances which formed the basis or the provocation of the RussoJapanese controversy, and which thus led more or less directly to the present war. Note, for example, what is said of Harbin, the city to which the Russian Viceroy has retired from Port Arthur. It is not to be' found on even the best maps of a few years ago, for it is a new creation. It has been built by the Russians since the beginning of their “ temporary ” occupation of Manchuria. It is built in a most substantial manner. “It is,” says the American consul, “as distinctly a Russian city as though it were located in the heart of Russia, and none but the Russian and the Chinese are permitted to own land, construct buildings or engage in any permanent enterprise. The city has been created by the Russian Government. The land for many miles in each direction has been secured so as to make it impossible for any foreign influence to secure a foothold close to the city, and foreigners are not recognised as having any rights whatever, but are permitted there by sufferance.” And it is in the very centre of Manchuria. In such absolute and evidently permanent fashion has Russia been establishing herself in Manchuria, while at the same time declaring her occupation of that country to be only temporary and brief. In such fashion has she been monopolising vantage points in that country to the practical exclusion of Americans and all other foreigners, while at the same time professing attachment to and promising maintenance of “ the open door.” There certainly seems to have been a marked contrast in her profession and her practice which this story of Harbin, to go no further, makes clear. It was largely that contrast and the uncertainty as to how much further professions might be superseded by contrary practices that caused Japan to seek a more definite understanding than had hitherto existed concerning those parts of the Asian continent in which she regards her own interests as vital,