NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TT is stated that the Minister who represents China in I Europe, and who now lives usually in Berlin, has gone to St. Petersburg to represent that China considers herself in pos- session at least of some portion of the Pamirs in which the Russian troops have appeared. The report is probably true, and may have a great influence on the pending negotiations. China never gives up anything which she actually possesses and can approach by land, and she has great influence with the Russian Asiatic division of the Foreign Office. That de- partment, which conducts its immense affairs without much reference to the general policy of the Empire, has quantities of business to manage in which Pekin, by stirring up the Tartar tribes, can make itself exceedingly disagreeable. The . Asiatic Ministry has no surplus revenue of its own, and does not want to spend money; and has a healthy dread of the great expenditure and loss of life involved in the effort to collect at the " top of the world" a force sufficient to defeat the Chinese host which can be organised in Kashgar. It has been defeated once, and has no wish to run the risk again ; while concession to China involves, owing to the ignorance of the West, no loss of prestige in Europe. It is quite possible, therefore, that the Russian soldiers sent up " to protect Turkoman shepherds " may retire from their positions, and that the Pamirs may be left once more to their usual solitude. The retreat will be the easier because the statesmen of Pekin do not care to boast, and are quite contented if they succeed in their steady policy of keeping everything in Upper Asia which has ever been theirs. England, of course, is quite willing that China should lie stretched between Russia and the Indian frontier.
