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16 MARINE REVIEW. [October 18, TRADE IN CHINA. RUSSIAN COMPETITION A SOURCE OF ALARM TO GREAT BRITAIN--SIBERIAN RAILWAY WILL DEVELOP RUSSIAN INTERESTS. From Engineering, London. While it is necessary to study the conditions of British trade in 'China, and to note the causes which affect its development, it is also desirable that we should keep ourselves acquainted with the circumstances con- nected with that of our competitors, for it is only by so doing that we can really understand the various problems which arise in connection with our own. Russia is generally considered our chief political opponent in the Far East, although there does not seem to be much to justify such op- position, as the resources and influence of Britain and Russia seem to be supplementary to each other. No doubt as the trade and industry of Siberia and Manchuria develop, competition will arise, but there are no reasons why it should not be of a friendly nature. At the present time such competition cannot be said to exist. Russia is one of China's largest customers, receiving a tenth of her total exports, and more than half her tea, but the whole of Russian trade is certain to be very much developed, and no doubt changed in character when the Siberian railway is in work- ing order. A study of the doings of Russia in the north of Asia shows that that railway is only part of a policy which was settled long ago, and which has been followed with a dogged persistence, as all Russian plans are. During the past quarter of a century, however, the change which has taken place in social and economic conditions in Russia has caused greater attention to be given to the development of Siberia, in order that room may be found for the rapidly increasing surplus population of Russia, and that markets may be created for the manufactured products which are now being turned out from the rapidly increasing industrial establishments which are to be found in many parts of the country. The progress of Russia across Siberia arose from the necessity of having an opening for her trade on the Pacific coast, and when the Trans- Siberian railway was commenced Vladivostock was looked upon as its natural terminus. The disadvantages of that port, however, were urged as an excuse for the demand for one further south, and on the termination of the war between Japan and China her representatives soon made it plain that they wanted a position which was not only more convenient for trade, but also stronger from a military and naval point of view. By means of a diplomacy, which cannot be defended, they obtained posses- sion of Port Arthur and Talien-wan, the former of which dominated the Gulf of Pe-chili and the way to Peking, while the latter supplemented it as a port for commerce. The possession of Wei-hai-Wei by the British was a very small compensation for the increase of Russian influence; in fact, it is doubted whether our strength in China is at all increased by this port, which is not fortified, and not to be compared from any point of view to Port Arthur, on which for a long time the Chinese had lavished large sums of money in building fortifications, and which has since been greatly strengthened by the Russians. Moreover, Vladivostock is no Jonger the ice-closed port in winter it . formerly was, for the resources of modern ship building have been called in, and powerful ice-breakers keep it open the whole year round, so that there is now no interruption of traffic at any season, and passenger steamers come at regular intervals all the winter, so that the reason for obtaining possession of Port Arthur no longer exists. Still, the climate is not good in winter, and naturally the officers of the men-of-war prefer to winter in Port Arthur or Nagasaki, although in summer time the bright side of life in Vladivostock is quite as attractive as in the southern ports. The place has been strongly fortified, but strangers are strictly prevented from visiting the fortifications, which are to be seen on all the hill-tops. Magazines, masked batteries, and other means of offence and defense have been provided, and they are connected by an electric tram- way and by telephone and telegraph, so that in case of attack communica- tion with the various points can be rapidly established. The number of soldiers stationed at Vladivostock has been greatly increased, and prob- ably it would be a more difficult place to capture than Port Arthur, about which we have heard so much recently. The trade of Vladivostock is considerable, the most of the larger es- tablishments being kept by Russians and Germans, although there is one prosperous American house, with branches at Port Arthur, Newchwang, and a few other Manchurian cities, ready to take advantage of the new trade conditions which will come with the building of railways in Manchuria. Vladivostock is, however, a cosmopolitan city, with large colonies of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, who have their own shops and live in their own way. There are two lines of steamers between Nagasaki and Vladivostock. One is that of the Russian volunteer fleet, and as they call at no intermediate ports they do the voyage in three days. The other is the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (Japan Steamship Co.) which performs a more frequent service, and calls at Gensen and Fusan on the Korean coast, and the vessels take six days for the voyage. _ The completion of the Trans-Siberian railway, with its Manchurian section, will before long virtually abolish the ancient caravan trade. Since the Russians became masters of Turkestan, the green tea which was formerly supplied by Parsee and Persian merchants in Bombay, who bought it for export on the Yang-tse-Kiang and shipped it to Karachi, and sent it northward by way of Peshawar, Cabul and Herat, into Bok- hara and Samarkand, is now sent by the Russian volunteer fleet to Batoum, on the Black sea, and thencé by an easy journey along the Trans- Caucasian and Trans-Caspian railways to the very heart of the green-tea- drinking populations. Thus the Bombay merchants have lost almost all this business, and the tea shipments to India fell 75 per cent. between 1896 and 1897 from 6,183,000 Ibs. to 1,513,620 lbs. The most important caravan route is via Urga to Kiahta and Irkutch. Other routes, but of less value, connect Western (China with the Semipalatinsk region. The general export from Siberia by these roads does not exceed 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 roubles, and is annually decreasing. The import is almost exclusive tea, which in 1898 reached 1,598,000 poods (57,500,000 lbs.), of a value of 16,- 292,000 roubles (£1,720,000). Excluding tea, the export and import trade of Siberia with China have been about equal in value. Beyond tea forming 98 per cent., the other articles of import from China to Siberia have been cotton and silk goods and sugar. The possibilities of the future, however, are great. Russia, on her side, can supply China with cotton and woolen fabrics, meat, leather and _ hides, manufactured goods in general, and minerals. The rich Ural district, and even Siberia itself, ina more eastern direction, could export the latter. The agreement with China, with the construction of the railway through Chinese territory, lays all the fertile fields of Manchuria, and in general the resources of China and Korea, at © Russia's disposition. The following figures, showing the exports from China and he imports into China of Russia and Great Britain in 1899, give the present rclative position of these two countries: Exports from _ Imports into China. China, Russia Sn £2,461,565 £ 513,367 Great Britain ek ee 1,941,784 6,602,338 and prove that there is room for co-operation in commerce and industry, and that Britain, with her excess of imports into China, might help Russia with her excess of exports. The imports to Siberia, hitherto mostly via the Far East, are thus distributed: From Russia, cheap manufactured articles, tobacco, spirits, sugar, leather, iron goods, paper, fabrics, etc. From the United Kingdom are sent cotton and woolen fabrics, iron, tin, machinery, etc. Germany, thanks to activity of German firms in the Far Eastern ports, has a pre- dominating influence on the import trade of Siberia, her wares in general being of the most varied kind, if but of moderate quality, including manu- factured articles, furniture, sugar, wines, household crockery, etc. From France there is imported fashionable apparel, preserves, wines, etc. From Japan mostly wheat, rice, salt, and fruits. From China, as we have seen, the trade is practically in tea alone. The latest obtainable statistics show that Germany had about 30 per cent. of this trade, and the United King- dom 25 per cent. It is mostly via Vladivostock, Nikolaevsk, Blayovestchensk and Yan. The exports from Siberia, via the west, are, first of all, grain, then meat, hides, butter, wool, game, eggs, etc. The imports by western rails are iron and iron goods, machinery of all kinds, sugar, spirits, wines, petroleum, manufactured articles, etc. The develop- ment of Manchuria must lead to a great demand for machinery and ap- pliances of all kinds, and the Russian government is anxious to encourage their importation. From the beginning of next year practically all the most important articles used in the various industries are to be exempted from customs duties. From a report by Mr. Paul Dimitrevsky, Russian consul-general at Shanghai, we learn a good deal about the competition to British shipping in the Far East, and especially of the effects of Russian merchants to or- ganize the river-traffic, and the attempt of a combination of Russian tea merchants to establish a river-boat company of their own. The plan, however, fell through, owing to the sloth and mutual jealousy of the Rus- sian merchants, and the carrying trade remained in British hands. Nowadays freights rule fairly low, thanks to the increase of the British mercantile marine in Chinese waters and the competition of Germans, Norwegians and Japanese, but M. Dmitrevsky thinks that in the past the Russian merchants have suffered dreadful things at the hands of the British navigators, and he believes that the British carrying trade in Chinese waters is doomed to decay, as we cannot compete with subsidized German shipping associations, and with the vigorous growth of the young Japanese mercantile marine. We need not allow such an opinion to affect our spirits to any great extent; we must carefully note the conditions under which the trade is being carried on, and observe all the factors which affect it. The importance of the Russian element is certain to in- crease at a very rapid rate, and, meantime, we have done little beyond directing attention to it. NEW SYSTEM OF FOG SIGNALLING. The United States light-house board is making experiments with a new system of fog signalling at Falkner's island, in the sound, near 'the Thimble islands, beyond New Haven. The principle of the new invention was tested last year and found correct, so this year the complete apparatus has been put up. It consists of eight megaphones, 10 ft.. long, each directed to a different point of the compass. The small ends of these eight megaphones meet in a ring, inside which is a revolving cowl, which turns on the top ofa siren. This siren is kept constantly spinning at the rate of 2000 revolutions a minute, and when compressed air is admitted to it it gives forth_a very penetrating and far-reaching sound, the tone otf which is about C in the middle octave. Compressed air is supplied to a large reservoir by an oil engine, which runs at a high speed. From this reservoir the air is taken to the siren through an oddly-constructed valve, by means of which a current of air at a pressure of 200 lbs., passing through a 2-in. pipe, can be controlled by a touch of the finger. This valve is operated by a series of teeth on a signal wheel, which revolves slowly, producing different signals as each of the different megaphones comes into range of the revolving cowl. These signals consist of long and short blasts, the long ones being three seconds each and the short ones one second each. _ The eight points of the compass are distinguished by the difference in these signals. Opposite points have exactly opposite signals, that for north, for instance, being one long blast, and for south one short blast. For east it is one long and one short, and for west one short and one long. For southeast it is one long and two short, and northwest two short and one long. For southwest it is two short and for northeast two long. These signals announce to the mariner the direction from which the sound comes, so that if a vessel was passing Falkner's island and heard two short blasts it would know that Falkner's island must be southwest of it. It could not hear any other signal but the one pointed toward it, because the megaphone sent the other sounds in a different direction; but if the vessel were to keep on its course until Falkner's bore due west, it would then be unable to hear any signal but the short and long blast which signifies west. _ These signals were suggested by Col. D. P. Heap, engineer of the third light-house district, at Tompkinsville. The apparatus is so con- structed that it is self-locking, and cannot be made to blow any but the right signal through any megaphone. No matter what happens to the machine or the engine, it will make no sound at all, or it will make the right one. - It is not intended to use this apparatus in fogs at present, as it would be confusing to mariners who are not aware of its existence, and the light-house board always gives ample notice of any changes in its warning signals,