The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-26
THE FUTURE OF SIBERIA.

1 The Siberian railway Is judi
 ciously represented as primarily a ser
 vice to civilization, whereas that is onl, l an accident and by no means welcome one. A highway to possessions in posst and a fresh purse accessible to depleted l treasures are worth an effort, some sac | rifices also, but they would be dearly i bought at the price of a constitution l Accordingly, precautions are beine | taken we'll in advance. The great rail- l way is by no means so near to comple i ton as the innocents imagine True, the lines have been laid as far as Irkutsk but beyond that point progress must ne- cessarily be far slower and the negotia- tion of Lake Baikal is only one among many formidable obstacles which bar the way to Vladivostock; moreover the haste and carelessness with which the work has been done render the railway unsafe and unsuitable for serious traf- fic MT. Krausse tells us that the rails only weigh sixteen pounds to the foot, and are merely fixed to the permanent way by rough spikes through holes in the aange. We find indeed only rough copy of railway, which may require long generation before it can lay any claim to perfection.
 Even then other generations will need to be spent in opening up supsiolaly network northwards and southWards tbroughout Siberia. Who knows wheth- or the areasury will ever be equal to s,,ch q strain? Still, the question of a Siberian railway system has at least en- torea the domain of practical politics, and the government is as wise as usu- al in providing against the contingent cv The first and most obvious provi- sion is to cease the transportation or convicts to Siberia. Whether the con- victs will be happier under far closer confinement at home is question which does not seem to have entered the minds of our rejoicing phllanthro- piste The next problem will be how to deal with the convict brood already established and undoubtedly tainted with Nihilist bacili. We do not pre- sume to suggest prophylactic, but our recollections of Russian methods when confronted by irreeonciliable op- ponents persuade us that it will follow the principle of kill or eyre. The mas sacre of Geok Tepe, rivaling if not sur passing those of Wexford and Glencoe, stands recorded as a convincing en- dorsement of this view.
 What then are the destinies of Sibe- ria? It may be that the still waters of revolution have gathered more volume there than even the vigilance of St. Petersburg has appreciated, that a del- uge of exasperation may swamp all the Russians, and that the CZar may be driven to seek an ark on the banks of the Thames. We do not think so, for Nihilism is now in a decline and the as- tuteness of Muscovite autocracy is even deeper than the quid nuncs believe. If all goes we'll with Russia and the stu pendous development which has multi piled her area by seventeen during little more than four centuries unchecked, Siberia may provide the necessary sinews and facilitate her absorption of Asia But if the peace snare be vanly set in the sight of her rivals and time fail for recuperation before the crucial | conflict, Siberia may prove source of | weakness rather than strength, and we may see the whole artificial system crumble away like a house of cards.-- London Saturday Review.