306 THE EAST CHINESE RAILWAY. 



October 8, 1903 — Russia will withdraw her troops from 

 the remaining province of Heh-lung-kiang." And then 

 I looked at the military activity all round me, at the 

 vast military encampment which stretched away to the 

 south, at those rows of significant red waggons, on each 

 of which was written, so that he who runs might read, 

 the fateful words, " forty men or eight horses," and at 

 their perspiring, expectant, tightly packed occupants. 

 And I thought of the hecatombs of Russian assurances 

 in the past, and wished that those good people who are 

 so anxious to invite our Indian neighbours to occupy 

 commanding positions on our flank in the Persian Gulf 

 and elsewhere were with me to see it all too. Actual 

 experience is so much more realistic than paper theories 

 concocted in an editor's office. Of course, there have 

 been assurances about Manchuria — stacks of them. The 

 assurance of Count Lamsdorff", given through the Russian 

 Ambassador on August 12, 1903, that "the evacuation 

 of Manchuria was to take place at an early date, 

 although that date could not exactly be tixed," was a 

 particularly interesting one under the circumstances ! 



The town of Kharbin is naturally destined to become 

 an important centre, if only from its situation on the 

 Sungari river, as the junction of the South Manchurian 

 line with the main trans-continental railway ; but there 

 is also every sign of administrative zeal to push the 

 place artificially into prominence. The administrative 

 portion of the town is being rapidly covered with well- 

 paved streets, and handsome buildings, including a fine 

 railway-station and a big hotel, — which will, at any rate 

 in the first instance, be run by the railway company, or 

 under the auspices of the Russo- Chinese Bank, — are 

 being feverishly carried to completion. An administra- 

 tive building costing £110,000 and engine-shops costing 

 £251,000 are in course of erection, and a hospital is 



