SIBERIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 43, 14 October 1912, Page 4

SIBERIA.

It is'stated on good authority that big developments are contemplated in connection with .Northern Russia and Siberia, and that a regular line is to be maintained between London and the Kara Sea during the navigation season. Several attempts to open up communication have boon made sincy 1870 without success, but the expedition which sailed last year on board the auxiliary barquentine Nimrod-—the vessel in which Sir Ernest Shackleton journeyed to the Antarctic—is likely to have permanent results. At any rate the Russian Government was favourably impressed, as it granted £2OOO for the erection of “wireless” stations. Moreover a company has been formed for trading purposes, and it is intended to establish depots on the southmouths of the Ob and Yenisei, thereby mouths of the Ob and Zenisei, thereby providing an outlet for the dormant natural wealth of Western and Central Siberia, though it is not believed that more than three voyages annually can be made each way. The vessels employed will have to be built specially to resist the ice. Apart from the benefit accruing to British industries from the influx of cheap Siberian raw materials, notably hides, mica, and graphite, it is contended that this will be a great boon to the large interests held by England in Siberian gold mines to secure the seaborne conveyance of bulky machinery and dredgers, the transport of which at present is very costly. The region is one with trepossibilities.