The. St. Petersburg correspondent of the Times forwards evidence that
the great Siberian Railway which will in four years'. time connect. St. Petersburg with Port Arthur will pay from the very first. It is producing trade wherever it goes. The supply of corn has already increased' to a surplus • of 65,000 tons in the steppe just opened up, where only' five years ago it was necessary to import 96,000 tons a year. The yearly transport of coal is already estimated at 260,000 tons, and it is officially estimated "that the commercial traffic of the Siberian Railway within the next five years will reach 1,532,255 tons a year, and this estimate is made irrespective of any consideration of the probable through traffic when the line is completed to the Pacific," while the time expended in travelling from London to Shanghai by this railway will be fourteen days, instead of thirty-five days by sea. We" distrust all prophetic figures, but we have never doubted that a rail- way which joins Europe to the Far East would pay, or that its completion 'would alter all the conditions of power in Northern Asia. The only• question is-whether the profit will be sufficient to pay for heavy rails, solid bridges, fortified stations, and the indispensable military guard.
