The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1919-04-25
Siberia Offers An
UndeveIOped Field
For Big Business

Note-This letter from The Associ-
ated Press correspondent sent to
Omsk to obtain for American readers
facts concerning the All-Russian gov
eminent there, travelled much more
than half way around the world. 1t
came east by the way of V~ladivostok
and across the Pacific to San Fran
cisco and thence to New York and
was more than six weeks in transit.
Much of the delay in forwarding mail
by this route, the only one available,
is due to the slow transportation
across Siberia. And after reaching
New York it had to come back to Ha-
wall, reaching here last Monday, a
.trifle ove two weeks more.
OMSK, Siberia. February 11-(Cor-
rcspondence of The Associated Press)
Before the war the trans-Siberian
express trains made the journey from
Vladivostok to Paris in thirteen days,
and from Vladivostok to Omsk, the
seat of the All-Russian government,
in six days. Recently special Amer
lean Red Cross trains, Young Mems
Christian Association trains and troop
trains required from 20 to % days to
cover the distance from V~ladivostok
to the temporary seat of the PROV
sional government.
General Reorganization, lack of To-
comotives and rundown passenger
and freight cars were the great causes
of this time-consuming trip. The
slow travelling cars had, however,
one advantage, among a long list OF
inconvenience, discomforts and even
some danger, and that was that 1T Of
fOrded Americans an opportunity to
CLEAN some conception of the vastness
of Siberia and learn something of the
ways of the Russian people.
In Russia Sci tschass" (immediat-
ely) does not always mean immediat-
ly. Very often it signifies tomorrow,
or the next day after that. The lack
of steady and regular application OF
the Russian workmen in his labor
and what is called the silent resist
ance" to foreign ideas as to how
things should be done, is believed to
be one of the chief difficulties to be
encountered in the reorganization of
the railroads as arranged for by an
international commission under the
technical direction of the American
Stevens commission.
The popular way of explaining the
vastness of Siberia is to say that it
would contain all of Europe and the
United states and then Germany and
Austria over again. Siberia is equi-
valent to one-thirteenth of the cohtin-
entail surface of the terrestrial globe.
1t is 2H times bigger than European
Russia and % times as big as the
recent German Empire.
The province, or government OF
Yenesei, through which the great Ye-
nesei river flows majestically, con-
tains nearly $4,000 square miles OF
land, and the district of Tobolsk,
which is bounded on the west by the
Ural mountains and extends north.
erly to the Gulf of Obi and the Arctic
regions, is an immense district estim-
ated to be about $1,000 square miles.
Siberia, in it's entirety, measures 24S,-
600 geographical square miles. While
it has been very generally travelled
over by Russian explorers and scient-
lists it might still be called, like Mon
golia, the land of the unknown.
Certainly, it is entirely undevelop-
ed. It's mineral wealth is prodigious
and only awaits the coming, when
peace has come, Of the man with
capital, brains, and some aptitude in
knowing the character and ways of
the people. Gold, silver, platinum
and copper mines are plentiful. In
the south towards the Caucasus, pet
roleum oil is so abundant that fires
may be lighted with the oil as it oozes
the rocky surface.
One hears IN all sides the desire
expressed that American business
come to Siberia and develop the
country. The industrial and civic
prosperity of the United States is re-
longingly by the people of
Russia. They compare the natural
richness of Siberia to that of the
United States and are convinced that
with American enterprise Siberia may
some day attain something of the
same stage or development, bringing
with it, perhaps, some measure of
that national comfort and happiness
of which the Russian people dream.