Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 104 (Color Image)

0104	Among the Celestials : vol.1

78 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. IV.

trade was in the hands of British merchants,

and the only Russian we ever heard of was an

escaped convict from Siberia. The Russians

were then very reasonably in some dread of

the Chinese, and especially of a combination

of Chinese land-power with British sea-power ;

for the only line of communication the Russians

had lay along the actual frontier, and was

exposed to attack for hundreds of miles, while

the railway was at that time thousands of miles

distant. The Russians for years had had the

right to navigate the Sungari River, but had

never exercised it, chiefly through fear of the

Chinese. Their commercial interests in Man-

churia were absolutely nil, and their thoughts

at that time were chiefly centred in endeavour-

ing to secure the strip of sea-coast, including

Vladivostok, which they had already filched

from China.

Now all is changed. They have engineers

in every part of Manchuria. They have hun-

dreds of soldiers as escort to those engi-

neers. They are constructing railways through

the land. And they have organised a fleet for

the navigation of the inland waters. To all

this we have no possible need to raise objection.

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