The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-02-21
RUSSIA AND CHINA
 SPAR VIGOROUSLY
Work for Favored Position in
 Mongolia
TROOPS PUSHED FORWARD
Boundary Line Ia Being Extended at Every Possible Polnt-Governmen Is Divided on Proper
 Course of Action.

St. Petersburg. February 20,--Chinese relations and the negotiations of Min ister Pokotiloff. with the Pekin gov ernment. are engrossing the attention of Russian diplomacy, even to the exclusion of the Algeciras conference, though an unfavorable conclusion of the latter, with all the prejudieial effect on Russlas st- uation Is now considered here well with in the bounds of probabilities.
 Foreign office officials make a mystery of the subject matter of the negotiations at Pekln, but the Associated Press learns that Minister Pokotiloff Is chiefly inter ested with Manchuria and the preserva- ton of Russias special rights there. Ap- prehensions of an indefinite result are voiced in dispatches from Pekin. The negotiations are directed to securing Rus sia in her favored position in Mongolia.
 Approximations Are Related.
 These apprehensions are rather belat- CT in view of the fact that 1t is not gen. erally known that two of the eastern provinces of Mongolia, Tsetsenchan and Tuschetuchan, intervening between PeSin and the Trans Baikalian frontier, gener- ally eastward of a line running from the southern end of Baikal to Pekln, were long since given over to Russo-Chinese banks exploitation and are thus actual ly part of Russia's sphere of influence under an agreement, the existnce of which was not generally known and of which the foreign office affects to be in ignor- ance. Russa's infantry and cavalry and artillery have been introduced at vari- ous important centers flor the protection of Russian consuls." These military "out- posts of the empire" have been pushed forward into Chinese territory the whole Siberian and Central Asian frontier chain extending from Kerulen in Eastern Mon golia. through Urga, Ulssutai, Tar bagatai, Urumumpts Kuldja. Kashgar and Yarkand, to Khotan on the border of Thibet
 Cat Let Out of Bag.
 The cat was let out of the bag concern ing the presence of a considerable force at Urga, including infantry and Cossacks and several guns by the incautious pub liSation in an obscure provincial paper of a casual account of a celebration of the departure of one company of the garrison and the arrival of another. The two pro- vinces given over to the Russo Chinese bank cover the route of the proposed railroad from Baikal to Pekin, for which a concession was obtained, but the money was wanting. The Russo Chinese bank also has valuable mining rights, including gold
 The Manchurian situation has given rise to sharp difference of opinion in the government one side urging q speedy realization of the provisions of the treaty of Portsmouth for the evacuation except by railroad guards and the complete abandonment of the Manchurian ad- venture and the other side working for delay, pleading in justification of it's at titude the claim that the decision of China to send several corps to Manchuria Is directed against Russia.
 A special session of the council for national defense has been called to con sider the question.