NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ACORRESPONDENT of the Times at Hong-kong, whom that journal describes as specially well informed, sends an important telegram, dated October 24th. He learns from thoroughly trustworthy authority" that under the unpub- lished treaty between Russia and China the former Power obtains right of anchorage for her fleet in Port Arthur, and also a right to cross Manchuria with two railways, one of which will lead from Vladivostock to Port Arthur. China is to retain a right of purchasing these railways after twenty years. That last touch is so deliciously cynical that we should believe the telegram, even if it were not supported by all the a priori evidence. It is absolutely certain that the Russians will not allow their mighty Asiatic artery to end in an ice-bound port like Vladivostock, and as certain that they have not guaranteed Chinese debts with- out a political equivalent. They are quite right from their point of view, and we do not see that it is our business, though we do see that we want a naval station in the north of China. We should add that, under a new agreement with Japan, that Power is to receive 28,000,000 at once, and to -clear out of the Liau-tung Peninsula within three months. They should be gone, in fact, before the ice breaks next year.
