We think, on the evidence, that the Chinese did carry
Blagoveschensk, the great Russian station on the Amur, but that it was recovered by a most daring assault by troops under General Gribski, who holds the town, which, however, is still bombarded by the Chinese. Charbin, also, is hard pressed, as in the east are Mukden and Newchang, while everywhere the Chinese threaten the stations along the railway line, and abandon the works half finished. It is evident, indeed, that the Russian garrisons in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria, which have recently been depleted to supply Port Arthur, are insufficient for defence, and the Russians—who know that in the Tartar tribes they bold many wolves by the ears—are obviously alarmed. They can, of course, push up great forces from the west, but that operation takes much time, if only to collect transport, and they are accordingly sending reinforcements from Odessa as fast as they can get steamers together. Even on this route they are pressed for time, for in four months more there will be ice in, the Gulf of Pechili. and the steamer
proprietors make such charges that there was talk of " com- mandeering " all craft lying in Odessa. That will not be done, but the very rumour shows how seriously the upheaval of China has affected Russia as well as other Powers. She, in fact, has been the first to admit "a state of war" in Eastern Asia.
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