[To TER EDITOR OF TER ~ stemma," Sin,—In the interesting
article which appeared under the above heading in the last number of the Spectator you con- tend that " Manchuria will be just as advantageous to us in Russian hands, provided the principle of the ' open door' is admitted, as in Chinese hands." But will the principle be admitted and permanently acted upon ? You evidently assume that it will, and you base your assumption on the fact that "we trade with Odessa and Riga as easily as with Shanghai." In another column, however, occurs a pregnant sentence which seems to me to point to quite another conclusion. You say in your occasional notes : " In Asia Russia is an Asiatic) Power, and must be regarded as one ; that is, must be judged by her acts without reference to her words." Let us apply that test to her commercial policy in Asia. The Treaty of Berlin made Batoum a " free port." It has long ceased to be one. The transit trade across the Caucasus into Persia has been abolished. A new tariff has been imposed by Russian diplomacy upon the Persian Government which is elaborately drawn up to penalise British trade, though certain branches of British imports have escaped owing to the " most-favoured-nation " clause of our own agreement with Persia. Throughout Central Asia our Indian trade has been destroyed root and branch. In Eastern Siberia a tariff has been enforced which is practically prohibitive against foreign imports. The carrying trade between Russia in Europe and her Far Eastern possessions has been declared to be "coasting trade " so as to exclude all foreign bottoms, though no Russian steamer can pass from the Baltic or the Black Sea to the Pacific without calling in at three or four British ports. Does all this point to the permanent mainte- nance of the " open door" in Manchuria under Russian control ?, Does it not, on the contrary, afford strong presumptive evidence that, whereas Russia in Europe recognises the expediency of admitting foreign trade to Riga and Odessa, Russia in Asia is determined sooner or later to exclude foreign trade from Manchuria by every means in her power, as she has already excluded it from the territories which have already passed under her direct administration ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
MIDDLE EAST.
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