The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-10-30

gives a sinister coloring to her evident,
though unannounced. intentions.
Notwithstanding the fervent protests
of the Russian bear to the effect that
he desired no further acquisitions in
China, his ambitions being satisfied,
these events give the lie to whatever
pacific proclamations he may have is
sued in the past The first occurrence
of Importance was at BIagovestchensk
last summer. when it was announced
that this capital of the Amur province
had fallen a prey to a savage horde of
Chinese and AIOngolians from the south
Two days later came reliable news that
the Chinese had been driven from their
positions with great slaughter, losing
1000 men and II guns, and that the
right bank of the Amur opposite had
been occupied by Russian troops The
crux of the situation was explained lat
er, when official Russian reports an
nounced the killing and putting to
fight" of 5000 Chinese, with no casual
ties whatever to the troops of the car.
This bloodless victory, it was later as
certaineds was nothing more or less
than an atrOcious massacre of Chinese,
5000 of them having been disarmed,
stripped OF their belongings, escorted
to the rivers bank and ordered to cross
to the other (the Chinese) side The
Anur is a mile wide at this place No
boats were provided, and when the
poor wretches protested, it was report
ed, men, women and children were
flung into the stream, stabbed and
shot. not one of them escaping alive.
To those unacquainted with Russia's
relentless policy for the past hundred
years and more, such a massacre might
seem incredible, as we'll as inexplicable;
but to one who has followed the trend
of events in this region it forms only
the bones of countless victims and ce-
mented in blood and tears. That struc-
ture is Russian dominance throughout
all Asia This advance of Russia across
Siberia to the Amur is no new move
ment, but has been persisted in ever
since the vast possibilities of this Mis-
sissippi of the Pacific coast were pro-
claimed by a Russian traveller early in
the seventeenth century The Russo
Chinese frontier was delimited by
treaty in 1889. and in 1858, after contin-
uous agitation, all Siberia north of the
Amur was ceded to Russia.
At last the Russian bear had got
partly into the Chinese tent, and the
left bank of the Anur represented his
nose. He put foot inside when China,
helpless in the grasp of the allied ar
mics in 1860. gave him the entire sea-
board country of Manchuria from the
Amur's mouth to the boundary of Ko-
rea without the loss to the car of a
single life or the expenditure of a hun
dred rub1es.
Any other nation than that ruled by
the remorseless descendant of the Mus
covite would have been satisfied ap-
parently. for he had now obtained his
hearts desire-an outlet on the Pacific
for his Transsiberian railway, including
Vladivostok and numerous other nat
uraI harbors below the line of perpet-
ual frosts- But, no; the ursine appetite
was only Whetted by the absorption of
this vast country, and he made poor
John Chinaman virtually cede another
vast province when the latter allowed
Russia to project the southern branch
of his transcontinental railroad to XII
rim, Mukden, and at last to Port Ar
thur, on the Yellow sea. Now he had
an outlet within 500 or 400 miles of Pc
king and had secured a port always
free from winter ice.
But was he satisfied? Oh, no! He
still desired q little more. Having Sc
cured a lease of Port Arthur, after
compelling its retrocession from Japan,
which had won it as the spoil of war,
the bear became paramount in Man
churia by means of his railroad conces-
sions, and now regards as a fact what
has long been recognized in effect-the
annexation of Manchuria and occupa-
ton of the right bank of the Amur.
Now, the right bank of the AInur, being
the southern bank, will probably be ex-
tended to include all the territory Pc
kingward. and the suzerainty of Man
churia may also imply all China proper,
which was conquered by its former ruI-
ers, whose descendants occupy the
throne today.
That fugitive Russo-Chinese bound
airy line has been advancing southwark
for centuries, and now, like the great
wall of China. finds it's terminus in the
gulf of Pe-chi-li, on the Yellow sea.
There it VIII be anchored for period,