The Awakening of the East: Siberia—Japan—China

by Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu

Vladivostok already contains a number of important maritime establishments, the harbour is excellent, and in case of a war with Japan it would be a most important point of vantage. Russia, however, calculates that by means of the Manchurian Railway she will be able to transfer the Trans-Siberian terminus five degrees south of Vladivostok, to Port Arthur, whereby she dominates the Gulf of Pe-chi-li and both the land and sea routes leading to the Chinese capital. This scheme has been absolutely decided upon since 1898. The branch lines which unite the harbours of Port Arthur and Talien-wan to the nearest point of the East Chinese Railway, close to the town of Kirin, are being pushed on as actively as possible. Thousands of tons of rail, as well as a number of railway-engines, have already arrived from France and America at Port Arthur and Niu-chwang, and another branch of the Russian Railway is being laid in the direction of this last-named port. The branch from Port Arthur is about 530 miles, so that the total length of the Trans-Siberian line will not be greatly increased by this deviation, which will bring it to a full-stop at the extremity of the peninsula of Liao-tung, on the shores of a sea which is always free of ice. The total increase in the expenditure will not exceed £5,000,000.

CHAPTER XI
THE ALTERED RELATIONS BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE FAR EAST RESULTING FROM THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY

The distance between Europe and the Far East by the Trans-Siberian—Diminution of the time and expense of the sea-route—China and Japan within two weeks of Paris and London—Luxury and comfort on board the Far East express—The difficulty of transporting merchandise, which must remain much more expensive than by the sea-route—Importance of the Trans-Siberian Railway as a means of diffusing civilization in the Far East.

As already stated, between 1904 and 1905 at the latest, a continuous railroad will bring Europe in touch with the shores of the Pacific. The distances between Paris, Berlin, and London, and Vladivostok and Port Arthur are as follows:

5,852 miles from St. Petersburg, viâ Moscow.

6,370 miles from Berlin.

7,044 miles from Paris.

7,104 miles from London, viâ Dover and Ostend.

European expresses would traverse the longest of these distances in one week; but it must be remembered that it is not at present possible for trains to run over the Siberian Railway at such high speeds as from forty to fifty miles an hour. These are only possible upon the very substantial lines of Western Europe, and are indeed much in excess of what is achieved by the American Trans-Continental trains, once they cross the Mississippi, or by the Canadian Pacific, the speed on which between Montreal and Vancouver rarely exceeds twenty-five miles, and even this relatively low rate cannot be expected at first on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The rails are very light, especially on the first or western sections, and the whole railroad is, in many places, as is often the case in America, rather primitively constructed. It is therefore calculated that the Far East express, the weekly train-de-luxe, which is to be organized as soon as the line is completely finished,[^[14]] will take not less than twelve days to perform the journey between London or Paris and Vladivostok and Port Arthur, which will not necessitate a greater speed than twenty miles an hour over the Siberian lines. When, however, the system is better managed and placed on the same footing as that of the Canadian Pacific, the journey may possibly be performed in a few hours under eleven days. The Trans-Siberian route will, once it is opened, be incomparably the shortest route between Europe and the Far East. It takes from Vladivostok to the Japanese ports of Nawoyetsu and Niigata on the Japanese Sea, a distance of about 480 miles, about forty hours by steamer. From thence, about 280 miles of rail, traversed in fifteen hours, will bring the capital of the Mikado within two and a half days from Vladivostok, and about fifteen days from Paris. On the other hand, the Chinese line, which is now being reorganized by an English company between Peking and Tien-tsin, and from thence to Shan-hai-kwan at the foot of the Great Wall, is being extended to Niu-chwang, where it will join the Russian lines, and thus the journey from Paris and London to Peking can be performed in between thirteen and fifteen days. Shanghai, the principal port of China, is distant 575 miles from Port Arthur, and can be reached in two days, and thus Hong-Kong will be only seventeen days’ journey from London. It now takes thirty-four days at least to get from Paris or London to Yokohama viâ the Suez Canal, and twenty-one viâ Canada, and certainly not less than twenty-eight days to reach Shanghai by either route. Twenty-five days are required to get to Hong-Kong viâ Suez, and thirty viâ America, and although this port is situated in the tropics, it could be reached much more expeditiously viâ Siberia than round by India. The Marseilles steamers touch at Saigon after a voyage of twenty-three days, but it is not probable that they will be able to compete in the matter of speed with the Trans-Siberian Railway. The capital of Cochin China, however, marks the extreme limit of this sphere; but all places situated to its north and east—Japan, Tonkin, China, and the Philippines—can be brought immeasurably nearer to Europe than was certainly ever imagined by Voltaire when he wrote his letter to Count Schuvarof. It is therefore evident that, even if the maritime companies do their utmost to increase the speed of their boats, they will never be able to convey travellers to Peking, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Tokio or Manila, in anything like the short space of time taken by the Trans-Siberian.

Another great advantage of the Trans-Siberian line is the diminution of the expense, which will be considerably less than that charged by the steamers. The price of a first-class passage from Marseilles to Hong-Kong, Shanghai, or to one of the Japanese ports, is uniformly about £70, to which must be added another £5 for travelling expenses from London to the starting-point. Viâ Canada the expense is about the same, whereas by crossing Siberia it will cost something like half. The Russian tariff is an extremely reasonable one, especially for great distances, and it is calculated that the prices from the German frontier to Vladivostok or Port Arthur will be by the ordinary trains about 11 guineas first class, and £5 third. By the train-de-luxe from the Russian frontier to the end of the journey it will be £18. To these expenses must, however, be added those which are always inclusive on board ships, but never on the trains—such as food, service, etc., which, however, are never alarmingly high on the German or Russian lines. If we add to the above the price of the ticket from Port Arthur to Shanghai, £6, to Hong-Kong, £12, it is clear that the cost of the journey will be about £32 from Paris to North China and Japan, and £40 to Southern China—in a word, half what is charged at present.