The papers of Tuesday publish a message from Washing- ton
according to which the dispute between Russia and the United States in Manchuria is likely to be ended without further difficulty. The dispute referred to the exercise of Russian authority at Kbarbin,—that wonderful mushroom city which owes its rise to railway enterprise. There Russia holds land for railway purposes; but it was certainly not intended that this possession should authorise her to exercise all the rights of government over the population within the territory. The United States Consul, who arrived at Kharbin in January, was apparently instructed by his Government to dispute the Russian claim to general administrative power, and the negotiations between Mr. Root and Baron Rosen suggest that he has done so successfully. The point is important. Only the other day the Peking correspondent of the Times tale. graphed that "Chinese sovereignty in Manchuria is being ground small between the millstones of Russian ascendency in the north and Japanese ascendency in the south."
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