GIGANTIC RUSSIAN ENTERPRISE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 158, 25 June 1908, Page 4

GIGANTIC RUSSIAN ENTERPRISE

THE AIIUR RAILWAY,

.Russia (says tile London Times) lias made a momentous decision in finally resolving to construct along the banks of the River Amur a very great extension of her Siberian railway system. The Duma, after much elaborate oratory, which suggests that its members have amply developed one characteristic of representative institutions, passed the necessary Bill. The line will braneii oil' from the existing route at a point apparently west of Chita, and will follow the course of the great waterway, in a vast semi-circular sweep, until it unites with the Ussuri railway at Kha* barovsk. It will thus link up a wide gap in the existing chain of communications, and it will give access by rail to Vladivistock through territory that has long Ijecn in Russian possession. The scheme is grandiose, and in a sense courageous, but many siucerelv patriotic Russians are believed to regard it with intense misgivings. They point to the strained condition of the nation-ii exchequer, and ask whether Russian limine? is in a position to face an enormous initial outlay, and heavy annual charges for maintenance, in connection with a line tint is most unlikely to prove remunerative. They further depcreate the proposal 011 the ground that its commits the Russian Government to a continuance of that adventurous policy in the Far Kast which of late years has caused such poignant tribulations. They are loth to see Russia still turning her face, as Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria once phrased it, towards " the morning light of the Hast"; and they think the Cabinet would have been wiser to devote itself and its money to questions of development nearer the centre of the Empire. General Kuropatkin and other eminent military authorities are understood to dislike the scheme because they doubt its strategic value, unless it is associated with a large development of existing lines, -which would imply a further heavy , expenditure. # # I „>!. Stolypin, however, insists upon regarding the Amur railway as of ''primary national importance." lie is looking ahead, and perceives that China is tolerably certain to exercise her right to buy the Maiicluirian lines, which she can purchase, both from Russia and Japan, thirty-one years heflce, If China completes the purchase, Russia would ha.ve no control over her meaus of communication with her maritime territory except by a river exceedingly difficult to navigate, which is frozen for several | months every year.

The Amur railway will place a severe tax upon Russian resources. It will lie I over 1300 miles long. The estimate! post of construction alone is set down at over £22,(100.000, a sum which will' probably l>e largely exceeded, if precedent counts for anything. The engineering dilliculties arc great. The constructors will not be advancing across an endless level prairie, as they did when tliev emerged into Manchuria through Trans-I'aikaiji and the Kh'mgan range. There are rugged mountains to lie traversed. The liability of the Amur to Hoods when tie thaw comes will have 1,, be taken into account. The bridgework will be very heavy.

The <>uterprise cannot fail ill the l«"l? run to have important economic result*. These will doubtless become apparent m the maritime provinces rather than nloii.f the route to lie traversed l)V tlie new'line. Tlie watershed. of the tipper Amur is a region of dark forests, ham1\ capable of supporting a large agricultural population. It is towards the Vssuri districts, however, that M, Stolvliin's jin/e is turned when lie speaks .rlowiiiL'ly of "forty million acres of cornlaiids awaiting tlie touch of man."'