The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-04
The United states and Russia.

1t u Q pleasure to learn that RUSSIA
purposes with reference to Manohuria
have been explained to the satisfaction
OF our State Department. We need not
point out how unusual it Is for one great
Jower to give another information re-
gardins the scope and intent Of negotia-
lions with a third country, while these
are proceeding. That diplomatic eti-
quote has been waived in the present
instance Is an additional proof Of tho
desire, repeatedly attested by the Cars
Government, to maintain the friendliest
relations with the United States.
Whether the demands, compliance
with which Mr.. PLANcoN, the Russian
Charge d'Afaires at Pekin. was said to
have made q condition precedent to the
evacuation Of Manchuria, were really
formulated by him Is now immaterial,
inasmuch as they are not sanctioned by
the st. Petersburg Foreign Office. Pre-
cisely how it is proposed to reconcile
with China's retention Of sovereignty
in Mauchuria the reasonable claims. Of
Russia, considered as the lessee Of Port
Arthur and Talienwan, and a. the builder
and operator Of tho Manchurian branch
81 the Trans-Siberian Railway, We shall
learn when Mr.. LEssAR, the Russian
Minister, returns to his post at Pekin.
Meanwhile, We have assurances that,
while Russia viii insist that adequate
measures shall Be- taken to protect the
railway and maintain order in the region
through which it runs, China's terri
torial integrity will remain intact, in
theory at least, and all Of the treaty
powers will have freedom Of access to
MAnchuria.
Il may be that the Chinese authorities
are unable to repress brieandsge and
that the Manchurisn line can be SAFE
guarded only by Russian soldiers, In
that event our State Department would
scarcely insist that Russia should aban-
don to devastation q railway on which
she has spent many millions Of dollars.
and on which she depends for connection
with her only ice-free ports on the
Pacific.
The American people have never
looked with sympathy upon the wish
which sAarns often TO have prompted
British. diplomacy, the wiah to exclude
the Russian Empire from access to the
sea. We are not likely to forget how our
own trans Allegheny communities were
once threatened with suffocation because
they were barred by France and Spain
from free communication with tho Gulf
Of Mexico. Americans would gladly see
tho Russians reach tho Mediterranean
through the Bosporus, or tho Indian
Ocean through Asiatic Turkey or through
Persia. We quite understand that tho
harbor Of vladivostok, being ohoked
with ice during large part Of the year,
affords No adequate outlet for Siberia,
and We - that Russia was impelled by
the law Of sslf-preservation to acquire
by lease the Mautung peninsula. We
recseni1s, also, that the acquisition car
rice with It an equitable claim to the
unimpeded transport thither Of freight
and passengers through Manchuria.
All Va ask u that Russia's equitable
claim 10 the exercise Of certain polios
functions along the line Of the railway
shall not be transmitted into an assertion
OF sovereignty, which might invalidate
our commercial rights in the annexed
region, and might b made pretext
for The Wholesale partition Of the Chinese
Empire.