THE DESCENT OF RUSSIA 11 Arthur and Talienwan. In her descent on Asiatic waters Russia has been impelled neither by the need of extended territory nor by the desire for commercial relations with other countries. Her absorptions have been prompted partly by a craving for a seaboard, and partly by the instinct of expansion necessary to a country which maintains a vast standing army without the means of keeping it occupied. The Russian provinces on the Pacific freeboard are at present as follows: The Amur region is too far north to serve as a base for action in the China seas. Its coast line is bleak and bare, and its navigation dangerous. It possesses a single port, that at Nicolaievsk on the estuary of the Amur river. Primorskaya, formerly the maritime province of Manchuria, affords a first-class naval base at Vladivostok, but even here the sea is frozen during the winter. Sakhalin is useless except as a protection to the Siberian coast line opposite. It is one of the bleakest countries in the world, and has only been utilised as a convict depot. Port Arthur and Talienwan are harbours in the Liaotung peninsula, which, owing to their geographical situation, are of great political importance. They afford bases from which operations could be undertaken against China, Japan, or Korea, and, further than this, they command the approaches to Peking and Newchang. By the leasing of these ports in 1897, Russia obtained a dominant situation in the very heart of the Far East, which may one day be utilised in more ways than one. Quite recently Russia has acquired a still more southerly harbour on the Pacific, by the leasing of a site for a coaling station at Masanpho in southern Korea and close to Fusan. The importance of this step becomes apparent on a glance at the map. It will be noticed that Masanpho is midway between Vladivostok and Port Arthur, forming the first of what will probably ere long be a series of Russian naval harbours round the Korean coast, uniting the Promorsk base with the Liaotung arsenal. It remains only to refer to British and American possessions in the Far East. Notwithstanding the vast interests possessed by this country on the Pacific, the territory covered in that region by the British flag is infinitesimally small. Omitting Singapore, which appertains to the Indian Ocean, our outports in the Far East are only two, Hong Kong and Wei Hai Wei. Hong Kong is an island off the mainland of China, near the estuary of the Canton river. It is some eleven miles long and five broad, and is for the most part occupied by mountains. Ceded in 1841, the colony has uniformly prospered, and, despite its limited extent, it to-day possesses a population of 221,000 persons. Since its original occupation, the colony has been extended by the lease of a tract of territory on the mainland opposite, which was increased in 1898. The whole of the colony of Hong Kong, including Kowloon, now includes 400 square miles with a population of 300,000. Hong Kong is the chief British naval station in the Far East. It possesses a series of dockyards and docks, and contains a small garrison. Wei Hai Wei comprises a strip of land along the bay of the same name on the north coast of Shantung, facing the Gulf of Pechili. This place, which was leased to Great Britain in compensation for the cession of Port Arthur to Russia in 1897, is well suited for the purposes of the naval and military base which is at present being constructed. Though still early to gauge the value of the port, there can be little doubt but that in the event of this country being engaged in hostilities in North China, Wei Hai Wei would prove of the utmost value to our interests. The concession comprises the port and bay, with a belt of land ten miles wide along the entire coast line, on which we are at liberty to construct fortifications or earthworks. AMERICA IN THE FAR EAST 13 The latest addition to the Powers possessing territory in the Far East is the United States of America, which obtained the group of islands known as the Philippines as part of the indemnity from Spain at the termination of the Cuban war of 1898. The archipelago in question extends north and south between Formosa and Borneo, and includes some two thousand islands of varying size and importance. The largest is Luzon, which contains an area of 40,024 square miles. The total area of the Philippines is 115,300 square miles, and the population is estimated at 8,000,000. The capital is Manila, with a population of 154,000. The inhabitants are mostly Malays. There is a European population of 25,000 persons and about 10,000 Chinese. The acquisition of the Philippines by the United States was resisted by the natives, who had previously risen in rebellion against Spain, and the country became plunged in civil war. Matters have quietened down since then, but the interior is still far from being pacified, though there are signs of improvement. The Philippines are fairly productive, and do a considerable trade with Europe, notably in sugar, hemp, and tobacco. The total revenue is rather under three millions. The possibilities of these islands are politically very great. The many fine harbours they contain afford exceptional facilities for naval and commercial purposes, and the geographical situation affords their possessors considerable influence in the affairs of the Far East. It is as yet too early to speak of the ultimate effect of the American occupation on Asiatic politics, but it cannot be other than considerable. Such are the locations of the various countries centred in the Far East: three of them, the outcome of centuries of evolution, sharing between them the wealth and the resources of outer Asia; four others, intruders, bent on the safeguarding of those interests they have acquired, and eager to add to their number and value as occasion serves. It is a fair example of the political struggle for existence, which, like that for life itself, must be fought, lest its possessors be struck with inanition and perish. No nation can stand still and retain its nationality. It can progress like Japan, until it enters the rivalry of its one-time greater powers. It can retrograde like China, and witness its despoilers quarrelling over the partition of its carcase, before it is yet dead; or it can be still-born like Korea, and feel its body being absorbed without even attracting the attention of possible_objectors. The forces of national being in the Far East, as elsewhere, are always moving. In the case of those countries which move wisely, it is not difficult to forecast the attainment of their aims. But with the sluggards, the end, though far off, is certain, and the only problem is, not the result but the circumstance by which it is to be brought about. It is the study of this principle which supplies the crux of the Far Eastern question, a topic which is bound up in the fate of empires, and the dominion of that part of the earth whereon the sun does rise. |