RUSSIA. 



C99 



being taken by a Russian coup-de-main. If the Rus- 

 sian force is sufficiently near to threaten the safety 

 of the key of India, we must also have a British force 

 sufficiently near to protect it. 



All other" questions relating to the Russian posi- 

 tion in Central. Asia are, as far as the British inter- 

 ests are concerned, of much interior importance to 

 the Toorkoman expedition and its results. At the 

 present moment, indeed, it may be assumed that 

 the attention of Russia is steadily turned in the di- 

 rection of Merv and Herat, and that she will be 

 mainly guided in her general Asiatic policy by con- 

 siderations affecting this special question. Whether, 

 for instancej the Khan of .Khiva be continued in the 

 nominal chiefship, or whether he be superseded 

 by a Russian governor, will depend upon which ar- 

 rangement promises best for the control of the Toor- 

 koman tribes : and even the great engineering works, 

 the ship-canal and railway between the Caspian and 

 the Aral, which are about to be commenced, are 

 probably regarded by Russia as of more value t in 

 strengthening her position on the Oxus, with a view 

 to the occupation and restoration of Merv, than as 

 improving the communications with Toorkistan. 

 (See PEKSIA.) 



In May the Russian Government concluded 

 a convention with Japan, by which the Japan- 

 ese part of the island of Saghalien is ceded 

 to Russia. Japan received in return the sole 

 sovereignty over the Kurile Islands, eighteen 

 in number. The La Peyrouse Strait is declared 

 the boundary for the future between the two 

 empires south of Saghalien, and the strait sep- 

 arating the northernmost Kurile island, Siur- 

 rnushia, from the promontory. Ropatsuka, in 

 Kamtchatka, is to serve as boundary in the 

 north. The treaty reserves to the inhabitants 

 of the ceded territories the free choice of their 

 future nationality. They may remain Japanese 

 and Russian subjects respectively without for- 

 feiting any of their rights of ownership which 

 are guaranteed by the treaty. 



It appears from official statistics that between 

 the years 1822 and 1872 no less than 500,000 

 persons have been banished to Siberia; yet 

 there has been scarcely any perceptible in- 

 crease in the population; and now, as fifty 

 years ago, there is not one inhabitant per 

 square verst. The reason of this is that the 

 number of persons who make their escape 

 from Siberia continues to be very great. In 

 1873. for instance, the number of persons en- 

 tered on the lists as condemned to banishment 

 in the Irkootsk district was 10,387, while 1,994 

 only were to be traced as residing there ; and 

 in the ten years from 1835 to 1845 no fewer 

 than 12,652 fugitives were recaptured. In 

 1859 the exiles in the Government factories at 

 Nertchinsk attempted to escape in a body, and 

 580 of them have been returned as " missing " 

 ever since. The great number of criminals 

 and escaped convicts in the country prevents 

 its free development, and the Minister of Com- 

 munications, General Possiet, urges that the 

 system of transportation to Siberia should be 

 given up altogether. u That country," he says, 

 " is more than twice as large as European Rus- 

 sia, and its natural wealth is still far from being 

 appreciated. Is it to be condemned to serve for- 

 ever as a residence for the criminals of a popu- 



lation of seventy millions? Now that the Pa- 

 cific is gradually becoming a second Mediter- 

 ranean that Russia, by acquiring the Amoor 

 district, has reached its coast, and the border 

 states have developed themselves with great 

 rapidity the time has arrived to place Siberia, 

 also on the road of progress, and relieve it of the 

 disgrace of being the homo of criminals." This 

 view finds many advocates in the Russian press. 



In June the town of Morshamsk, on the right 

 bank of the River Tena, Russia, was entirely 

 destroyed by fire. It had a population of 

 20,000, and contained three churches, and sev- 

 eral manufactories and saw-mills. In August 

 a similar fate befell the town of Briansk, in the 

 government of Orel. Two-thirds of the town 

 were destroyed, and the inhabitants fled in a 

 panic to the fields, where they passed the night. 

 A heavy rain alone saved the town from com- 

 plete destruction. 



On September 26 (October 8), 1874, the Rus- 

 sian Government issued a circular to its dip- 

 lomatic agents, for the purpose of obtaining 

 the opinions of the different Governments on 

 the propositions of an international declara- 

 tion concerning the laws and customs of war, 

 submitted to the Brussels Conference, and the 

 revised project, as agreed upon there, in order 

 to formulate these propositions in some definite 

 international act or treaty. The German Gov- 

 ernment was the first to accept the proposition. 

 Sweden followed in February. On February 

 20th Earl Derby sent a dispatch to the British 

 embassador in St. Petersburg, in which he re- 

 fused to accede to the proposition in the fol- 

 lowing words: 



In my dispatch of the 28th of September I stated 

 that her Majesty's Government desired it to be dis- 

 tinctly understood that by authorizing the signature 

 of the final protocol, they did not accept the rules 

 thereto annexed. A careful consideration of the 

 whole matter has convinced them that it is their 

 duty firmly to repudiate, on behalf of Great Britain 

 and her allies, in any future war, any project for al- 

 tering the principles of international law upon which 

 this country has nitherto acted, and above all to re- 

 fuse to be a party to any agreement the effect of which 

 would be to facilitate aggressive wars, and to para- 

 lyze the patriotic resistance of an invaded people. 



In the beginning of February, 1875, the Rus- 

 sian Government permitted the publication of 

 the proceedings of the Brussels Congress in 

 the Russian papers. Up to that time they had 

 only been published in a supplement to the 

 French Journal de Saint-Petersbourg, of which 

 only a limited number of copies were printed. 



On June 2d the International Telegraphic 

 Congress was opened in St. Petersburg. The 

 American Government, and others, had re- 

 ceived an official invitation from Russia. At 

 first the invitation was declined on the ground 

 that telegraphing in the United States was 

 done by private enterprise, which was not sub- 

 ject to the control of the Government. Mr. 

 de Yoigt, the charge d'affaires in Washington, 

 then intimated a disposition to receive delegates 

 from private companies. This was made known 



