DIRECTION OF THE LINE. 299 



CHAPTEH XXV. 



THE EAST CHINESE RAILWAY. 



Eussia's coup — The line to pass through Manchuria — Great Britain's 

 reply — The Manchurian railway agreement — A journey over the 

 Manchurian railway in the autumn of 1903 — Across Lake Baikal — 

 The frontier of Manchuria— Calibre of the line — Kharbin — Military 

 occupation — Article II. of the Manchurian Convention of 1902 — The 

 ambitions of Kharbin — Magnificent crops — Dalni — Port Arthur — 

 Eussia's outlay in Manchuria — Niuchwang — The Boxer outbreak 

 Eussia's opportunity — The situation at Niuchwang at the outbreak of 

 hostilities — Mukden and Antung opened to foreign trade — Peking 

 the end of the journey. 



Once upon a time it was supposed that the Trans- 

 Siberian railway was to be built entirely through 

 Russian territory. East of Lake Baikal it was to 

 run in a more or less straight line to Kharbarofsk, 

 whence a line has been built to Vladivostok ; and 

 in the meanwhile, before the line was completed, 

 the waterway of the Amur was to be used as the 

 connecting-link in the communications between Russia 

 and the Pacific. Russian statesmen, no doubt, knew 

 better, though they kept their knowledge to them- 

 selves ; and even people who were not Russian states- 

 men, but who had made themselves acquainted with 

 Russian aims and Russian methods, spoke sceptically 

 of the section through the mountainous regions of the 



