For the whole journey the food on train was good, but owing to the large number of passengers, after giving the order one had oftentimes to wait from an hour to an hour and a half before getting served. After Baikal this considerably improved, there then being two restaurants, one for smokers and one for non-smokers, whereas before, men smoked without restraint while women and children were eating their meals. This dining-car was a perfect babel of tongues, for there were collected Russians, English, French, Japanese, Germans, Swiss, Chinese and Italians, generally all talking at once.
On the whole we rubbed along fairly well, although where so many nationalities were closely packed together for a fortnight, a certain amount of racial antipathy was occasionally bound to appear. When no Russians were about both the Japanese and Chinese would eagerly question me on the chances of war. When a Russian appeared, they immediately seemed to lose all interest in the subject. The Germans affected to despise the Russians, and the Russians said they hated the Germans, while they both suspected the English.
4th November.—We reached Dalny at 7 a.m., and I drove in a droski from the station to the wharves, a distance of perhaps one mile and a half, and there went on board the Railway Company’s steamer “Amour” which was to convey us to Shanghai. It is truly wonderful to what a large European town Dalny has grown from absolutely nothing, in about five years. Good private residences, factories, hotels, shops, public buildings, the beginnings of botanical and zoological gardens, a dry dock measuring, I judged, about 350 feet by 70, wharves, breakwaters, dredgers, tugs, steamers ... everything except the one thing needful, trade. Of the half-dozen fine steamers in port, and others either arriving or preparing to depart, all were practically light. Money has been poured out like water by the Russians in constructing the Railway and in building Dalny, and it is very doubtful if this gigantic enterprise will ever be made to pay. It is said that Dalny, which is identical with Talienwan, can never thrive unless Newchwang be closed to foreign trade. The harbour has a depth of 28 feet and is being dredged. The Railway Company’s line of superb steamers carrying mails, passengers and a little cargo between Dalny and Shanghai, is being run at a heavy loss. The naval fortress of Port Arthur, at the extremity of the Liaotung peninsular, is thirty miles by rail from Dalny.
The impression left on me by my journey through Siberia is that Russia has advanced her outposts into Manchuria far beyond range of effective communication, that is, communication by the Siberian railway alone, which is only a single line of light metals some 5,375 miles in length.
Travelling over this line day and night for fourteen consecutive days, passing continuously through bleak, barren and almost unpopulated regions, crossing numerous wide rivers, an enormous lake and several mountain ranges, waiting sometimes for hours in sidings to allow homeward bound trains to pass, and seeing enough snow, even before winter had actually begun, to understand what difficulties heavy falls must occasion, I cannot help feeling that Russia’s position in the Far East is unnatural and even precarious.
The railway in its entirety is flimsy and liable to collapse almost everywhere, and I am certain it could never sustain a large volume of rapid traffic. Even, however, supposing that it did not break down, but was worked successfully to its utmost capacity, what would that capacity be—the capacity of a single light line of over 5,000 miles in length? Could a town of 100,000 inhabitants rely solely on it for supplies? Can a Russian army of even 100,000 men rely on it?
The S.S. “Amour” cast off from her wharf at noon on 4th November, and after a quick and calm passage arrived in Shanghai at noon on 6th November, 1903.
This fine vessel, measuring about 2,000 tons, steaming 14 knots, fitted up with every comfort and kept scrupulously clean, was commanded by Russian officers and manned by a mixed crew of Russian and Chinese sailors. Since the outbreak of hostilities, however, she has been transformed into a hospital ship at Port-Arthur.
Length of Journey | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles | |||
| From | London to Moscow | about | 1,600 |
| ” | Moscow to Dalny | ” | 5,375 |
| ” | Dalny to Shanghai (by sea) | ” | 550 |
| Total distance from London to Shanghai | 7,525 | ||