RUSSIA CAN WAIT | AdventAI

International Religious Liberty Association · Chicago, Illinois · Jun 28, 1900

FromThe American Sentinel, The Sentinel of Liberty, Vol. 15, No. 25.

RUSSIA CAN WAIT.

“Russia,” says Mr. Brice, “can afford to wait. She has scored a great success. She has made another of those onward steps by which, more frequently without war than through war, her territory is constantly growing, and her influence extending beyond the limits of her territorial authority. She is now predominant in Persia, a hopelessly feeble state with a vast area and a scanty population. She is also predominant in Manchuria, and will, when her Trans-Siberian Railway has been completed, be able to terrorize China. Across the whole length of Asia, from the Black Sea on the west to the Yellow Sea on the east, she can, when she pleases, add without difficulty many thousands of square miles to her dominions. Having time on her side, she is prudently anxious to perfect her railway system and have some money in hand before she absorbs fresh districts on which much money would have to be spent.

Still more recent events—events still future when Mr. Brice was writing his article for the Saturday Evening Post—further strengthen Russia’s position, especially in eastern Asia. The Czar was the only European ruler having a really effective land force within easy striking distance of Peking at the time of the “Boxer” outbreak there, which, it seems possible, may end in the speedy partitioning of the Chinese Empire.