Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-03-29
MANCHURIA AS A PRIZE.
LARGE AS NEW ENGLAND, THE
MIDDLE STATES AND COLO
RADIO.

A Vast, Fertile Country with Mineral
Wealth, a Fair Climate and Plenty
of Facilities for communl cstion.
Home Of Ruling Dynasty of r,ina.
Manchuria, the scene of the greatest
battles in the Eastern war as at pres
emit planned, is g. mountainous prov
ince of the Chinese Empire as large
as all our New England and Middle
States, with Colorado thrown in. It's
population is much less dense than
that of our Eastern States or that of
China proper. The latest estimates
give it nearly the population of New
York and Massachusetts combined
about $4,000.
The original Manchurians were not
Chinese. They were a part of the
Outside barbarian" world against
which the Chinese built their great
wall. The present Cinese imperial
dynasty, however, is Manchurian, COM
ing from Mukden, the Manchu capital,
where their dead ancestors are buried.
Hence Mukden is a sacred city in
the eyes of Chinese courtiers, and its
capture by the Japs in the recent war
had corresponding political effect.
The Manclu language Is employed
in the Chinese court, but is not under
stood by the Chinese proper. When
Manchuria was added to the empire
it was under-populated. much as our
country was by the Indians, and to
fill 1t up the Chinese transplanted
there Chinese Mahometans from Gen.
trail Asia and other mixed peoples.
For this reason the inhabitants of
Manchuria are now of many races and
tongues, a fact wnich makes it easier
to hold them in subsection.
Newchwang, at the apex of the Gulf
of Liaotung, is in about the latitude
of New York City. Port Arthur is at
the point of a long peninsula which
divides the Gulf of Pechili from the
Yellow Sea, and which is fancifully
known as The Regents Sword" It's
latitude is that of Baltimore.
The climate, however, seems to be
more severe in Southern Manchuria
than in New York and Baltimore. The
presence of the vast mass of the Asian
continent behind the Yellow Sea sub
jects the coast to billiards from the
west which make the winter bitter
cold.
Russia has in Manchuria two claims
one good, the other good enough to
bluff upon until she is called" She
has a legal right under treaty with
China to maintain her railroads in
Manchuria and to keep troops there
to guard the lines. Since the Boxer
troubles, however. Russia has kept
strong bodies of troops in towns that
are nowhere near the railroads, prac-
tically OCCUPYING and controlling the
whole country. 1t is this latter and
wider occupation, permitted at the
time as supposed measure OF safe
guarding foreigners in China during
the troubles, that Russia has promised
again and again to end but has not
ended. AS Japan conquered all that
region once and was "shooed" out of
it by the allied powers, this naturally
reused her ire especially, thougtl DIS
simple matter OIL business the United
States and other nations have sought
assurances from Russia that she would
retire from an occupation which is no
longer warranted.
Manchuria's possibilities may be
compared roughly to those of our
North Atlantic States. Its splendid
wheat harvests call every year thou
sands of Chinese laborers northward,
and many of these remain. The noun
tains are full of mineral wealth, the
fields are broad and fertile, the har-
bors excellent and commanding from
the military point of view. Port Ar
thur commands Picking, and the most
populous provinces of China.
The people of China proper and of
Manchuria have to considerable ex
thousands of Manchus have gone
south to become the warriors and the
court dignitaries and the provincial
governors of China. Most of the fine,
tall, handsome men whom in this
country we have seen as representa-
tives of the Chinese Empire have
been of original Manchu stock. Mean
while the active little Chinese of the
more usual washee-washee type have
swarmed over Manchuria, doing most
of its smaller retail trade, just as the
larger trade and commerce have been
in Japanese hands, despite the Rus
sian occupation. The fear that this
outlet of Japanese trade would be
closed by the Russians has added to
The heat of Japan's resentment at
being outwitted by Russia.
OF late Russia has had its wanting
eye upon Corea for curious reason.
The port of Massampho, at the ex-
treme southern tip of Corea, is ice
free. Vladivostok, the original termi-
nus of the Siberian Railroad, is closed
by ice for months every winter. When
they got Port Arthur the Russians at
once abandoned work at Vladivostok,
diverted the stream of emigration to
Port Arthur and near the latter place
plduuSu the 6lCdl nc" SitJ VI Dohhy.
Now it appears that Port Arthur itself
is not wholly ice-free. Massampho is.
For hundreds of years the huge
Northern Bear has been struggling to
escape from the ice and snow that
rim his birthplace. This is the secret
of his activity in the Far East-N. Y.
Wall.