Amador ledger., 1905-09-01
SAGHALIEN.
How Russia Seized 1t.
SSSSSSSSSS

we're Gnen administered by the TOku-
gawa Shotguns, whose ignorance of
the. outer world selected the isolation
to which they had themselves con-
demned their country two and half
centuries previously. The Yedo
officials knew nothing about the
details of Russia's Asiatic expans-
ion; knew nothing about the clrcum-
stances under which her people had
come to Saghalien, or even about the
period of their arrival there. Hence,
when Admiral Putiatin, represent
ing the czar, induced the Japanese to
sign treaty with him at Shimoda on
February Z, 1856, he found no diff
Guilty in procuring the insertion of
the following provision:
GAS to the island of Saghalien,
there shall be no deIimitation of
boundaries between Japan and Russia;
things shall continue as they have
been hitherto
This was one of the strangest
articles ever inserted in an inter
national covenant. For, from Russia s
standpoint, the word "hiterto"
covered peroid of only three years.
Only three years had elapsed since
she had first laid hands on Sagha-
lien. She possessed no manner of
right to the island. Nearly all the
expansion of her empire in far eastern
Asia from the time (1847) of Muir
avief's dramatic appointment as
governor general of eastern Siberia
had been the work of the "man at
the 'front.'" and that man was Newell
skoy. 1t was Nevelskoy who, acting
on his own responsibility and without
even Muravieff' s knowledge, COM
menced the occupation of Amur by
raising the Russian flag at NikoIaiefsk,
virtually tearing up the treaty of
Nertchinsk for the purpose, as is
Russia's habltual method of dealing
with treaties that incommode her. It
was Nevelskoy who still true to his
role of independent aggressor, found
ed the port of Alexandrofsk, thus
securing the command of the gulf of
Tartary. 1t was NeveIskoy who, in
the same year (1852) sent an expedi-
tion to explore Saghalien, which he
himself had discovered to be an
island; and 1t was Nevelskoy who, in
the following year, circumnavigated
Saghlien and founded there the first
Russian post, llinsk, on the south
west coast. Ilinsk had only six Rus
slams to colon1ze 1T. MuIaviesk, on
the southeast coast which was estab-
lished year later (1834), had an even
lesser garrison. Nevertheless the rails
ingsof the Russian flag at these points
meant the annexation of SaghaIien by
Rnssia, which annexation had, indeed,
been formally sanctioned by the czar.
The st. Petersburg authorities knew
we'll that in this procedure they were
violating the rights of Japan, which
had always claimed sovereignty over
Saghalien. But the island became
strategically necessary to Russia as
soon as she seated herself on the
Amur, and her own needs have always
been sufficient Justification in her
eyes.
Embarrassed Ambassador.
The curious result was, however,
that, when Admiral Putiatin came to
negotiate treaty with Japan in 1856,
two "reminiscences embarrassed him
first, that three years previously he
himself had supported the Russian
foreign minister, Count N NesseIrode, in
protesting that the annexation of Sag
halien must involve trouble with Jap
an; secondly, that until three years
previously not Russian subject had
ever set foot on the island. If the ad.
miIal had any sense of humor he must
have been much amused when in these
circumstances, the Japanese commIs-
sloners agreed that there should be no
delimitatlon of boundaries between
japan and Russia in Saghalien, and
that things should continue there as
they had been hitherto. 1t need
scarcely be said that things did not
continue as they had hitherto been.
Each year brought to Yeddo tidings
that theRussians were extending their
sway more and more in the island,
and at length the Tokugawa officials
becoming seriously alarmed, sent
commissioners to demonstrate. Then
(1862), as always, the Japanese we're
ready to compromise. The 50th paral-
lei of latitude divides Saghalien into
two almost exactly equal parts. There
fore they proposed that the 50th paral-
lei should be the line of demarcation.
But the Russians-the same Russians
who in 1908 suggested the 39th paral-
lei of latitude as suitable limit for
a neutral zone in Korea-ridiculed
the idea of such an intangible bound
ary. 1t would surely lead, they said,
to complications. Could the japanese
commissioners Indicate exactly the
places in SaghaIien that lay on the
5Oth parallel? The Japanese commits
sioners could not do anything of the
kind. No one could have done it.
"Then," retorted the Russians, "bet.
ter preserve the hitherto arrange
/ ment; or, if you must have line OF
division, let US draw it atAniwa bay. y