RUSSIAN DEVELOPMENT OF MANCHURIA* 



By Henry B. Miller, United States Consul to 

 Niuchwang, Manchuria 



ONE of the greatest achievements 

 in city construction that the 

 world has ever witnessed is 

 now going on in the heart of Manchuria. 



THE BUILDING OF HARBIN 



In the building of such cities as Vlad- 

 ivostock,Dalny,and Port Arthur, Russia 

 has demonstrated her power and pur- 

 pose on the Pacific in line with the 

 world's conception of her character ; 

 but in the construction of this wonder- 

 ful city of Harbin she is displaying an 

 altogether different type of activity from 

 what we are prone to attribute to her. 



It is in this city, more than in all the 

 others combined, that Russia is assert- 

 ing her intentions of becoming an active 

 industrial force in the affairs of the 

 Orient, and her people are already giv- 

 ing the place the title of the Moscow of 

 Asia. 



The city is located on the Sungari 

 River, at the point where the Manchu- 

 rian branch of the Siberian Railway 

 crosses'the stream and where the Chinese 

 Eastern branch starts south to Dalny 

 and Port Arthur. It is about 350 miles 

 west of Vladivostock and 600 miles north 

 of Port Arthur. Its location is the geo- 

 graphical center of Manchuria, and from 

 present prospects it is to become the 

 commercial center as well. The city is 

 surrounded on all sides for hundreds of 

 miles with a rich and productive agri- 

 cultural country, producing corn, wheat, 

 oats, barley, beans, millet, hemp, tobacco, 

 vegetables, and some fruits. Minerals 

 and timber and great areas of grazing 

 lands also surround it. 



At present the place consists of the 



old town, 3 miles from the central depot, 

 Prestin or the river town, the present 

 commercial center, and the administra- 

 tion town, in close proximity to the rail- 

 way station. Before the railway engi- 

 neers established this as their headquar- 

 ters there was no native town in this 

 vicinity, and the entire place is therefore 

 a Russian product. 



ADMINISTRATION 



It is as distinctly a Russian city as 

 though it were located in the heart of 

 Russia, and none but Russians and 

 Chinese are permitted to own land, con- 

 struct buildings, or engage in any per- 

 manent enterprise. The city has been 

 created by the Russian government, 

 under the management of the Manchu- 

 rian Railway Company. The land for 

 many miles in each direction has been 

 secured so as to make it impossible for 

 any foreign influence to secure a profit 

 or foothold close to the city, and for- 

 eigners are not recognized as having 

 any rights whatever, but are permitted 

 there by sufferance. The chief railway 

 engineer is the administrator of the city, 

 and up to the present time has had com- 

 plete control of everything, but in the 

 new scheme for the government of Man- 

 churia some form of municipal organi- 

 zation will be permanently established. 



In 1900 the place began to assume 

 importance as a center of railway man- 

 agement, and in 1901 the population 

 had grown to 12,000 Russians ; in 1902, 

 to 20,000; by May, 1903, to 44,000, 

 and in October, 1903, a census showed 

 a population of 60,000, exclusive of 

 soldiers. Of these, 400 are Japanese 



* The National Geographic Magazine is enabled to publish in full this excellent account 

 of Russian progress in Manchuria up to the close of 1903, through th: courtesy of Hon. O. P. 

 Austin, chief of the Bureau of Statistics. 



