Chapter LXXXII: Section 29 (2)

"We, the undersigned Russian men of letters, deprived of the
possibility of freely expressing our ideas on the needs of our
poor Fatherland, prevented by the censorship from speaking of
what happens before our eyes or indicating an outlet from the
terrible situation of our country, and conscious of our duty
towards the people, resort to our foreign brethren for the
purpose of informing the civilized world of the atrocities now
being committed among us. On March 17, in the Kazan Square at
St. Petersburg, the police fell on an inoffensive and unarmed
crowd of several thousand persons, men, women, and children,
and without any provocation showed unexampled brutality and
ferocity. Cossacks, surrounding the crowd and preventing it
from dispersing, charged without warning the compact mass,
which had mostly been drawn together by curiosity.
{426}
The police seized at random the people who fell into their
hands, striking them without mercy with their fists or swords.
Those of the public, even officers in uniform, who begged for
a cessation of the carnage, were maltreated or even arrested.
Such are the facts of which several of us have been
eye-witnesses. Similar atrocities have recently been committed
in other Russian towns. Full of terror and anguish at the
future in store for our country, thus given up to the whips of
Cossacks and the swords of the police, convinced that our
indignation is shared by those of our Russian brethren whose
signatures we have not had time to obtain, by all the
intellectual society of Russia, and by all those from whom
feelings of self-respect and humanity have not yet been
eradicated, convinced also that our foreign brethren will not
remain indifferent to what passes among us, we appeal to the
Press of the world to give the utmost publicity to the
attestation of the lamentable facts of which we have been
witnesses." A despatch from St. Petersburg on the 26th
reported that the Mutual Aid Association of Russian writers
attached to the St. Petersburg Literary Society, from which
this protest emanated, had been suppressed, as the consequence
of its publication.

A more significant expression, and one from which a more
definite idea of the nature and causes of the discontent among
the students may be obtained, is the following petition,
addressed to the Tzar by a number of Russian professors and
Senators in March. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the
"London Times," who sent a translation of the paper to that
journal on the 18th of March, remarked that "it is very
doubtful if it will have any real effect, and its contents may
very possibly be regarded by the red-tape officials into whose
hands it may fall, if not by the Emperor himself, as implying
a request for something like a Constitution. Apart from that
consideration a collective petition in Russia is illegal." The
translation of the document is as follows:

"Your Imperial Majesty,—We, the undersigned loyal subjects,
consider it our patriotic duty to address you, Sire, with the
present humble petition on the subject of the recent agitation
among the students. We desire to express in this paper the
thoughts that have long been a matter of painful reflection to
every Russian conscious of the life which he is living. This
perturbation among the students, which has been of periodical
recurrence for the last 40 years, has ruined the careers of
thousands of young men and women animated by the most ardent
aspirations for the good and happiness of their native
country. It would undoubtedly be most unjust to lay all the
blame for these disorders on the students themselves. The
causes of this state of things lie much deeper. They are
connected with many of the general conditions of the life of
our State and society; they are to a great extent rooted in
the want of organization of academical centres. This want of
organization was explained by the special commission appointed
by your Majesty's command two years ago. But the labours of that
body failed to have the practical result which was apparently
expected of it; public opinion was not permitted to take part
in its deliberations, either by means of the Press or in any
other way. The matter was treated according to the usual
official routine, and in the Ministry of Public Instruction
the magnanimous intentions of your Majesty were not only
rendered colourless, but deprived of all their real
significance. Instead of properly carrying out your Majesty's
indications in regard to closer communion between the students
and professors of the higher educational establishments, the
Ministry dismissed those among the latter whose moral
qualities and devotion to duty were calculated to exercise the
most beneficial influence over their scholars.

"Those among the students who took part in the disturbances,
and who should have been worked upon by moral persuasion, were
expelled from the Universities, and the force of inspectors,
otherwise the University police, was increased for the purpose
of controlling those who remained. The temporary law of June
29, 1899, against further disorders threatened the agitators
with the punishment of being drafted into the ranks of the
army. This measure, which has now been enforced, will, of
course, put down the movement at least for a time; but it is
impossible to ignore its moral effect. It only represses, but
does not thoroughly convince. By this means the more
hot-headed among the students, inspired by the most
respectable aspirations and feelings, will be weeded out of
the scholastic ranks, and their parents will be suddenly
deprived of all hope and consolation in their children perhaps
for years; while on the rest this measure can only have the
effect which is always produced by terror and fear for the
future. It oppresses them, extinguishes their best impulses,
and tends to bring the weaker ones beneath the influence of
those petty egotistical motives which are already so powerful
in our daily life. To bring up an entire generation in such
conditions is to create and support an oppressive state of
things in the life of the nation which must finally lead to
downfall and decay.

"The oppressiveness of this environment is felt not only by
the young, but also by their elders. Is it normal that in an
autocratic State the voice of loyal subjects should be unable
to reach their Sovereign? And yet at the present moment many
persons regard the signature of this loyal petition as almost
an act of the greatest civil courage. In order to loyally and
honestly bring their wants and traditional desires to the
notice of their Monarch (Lord), the subjects of your Majesty
are obliged to act in the dark for fear that the police will
seize hold on the petition and intercept it before it can
reach your Majesty's hands. Many who fully agree with all that
is here expressed will certainly be deterred from signing the
petition because of the unpleasant consequences to themselves
which they fear may follow. In such conditions life becomes
intolerable. A deadening apathy spreads over everyone, all
interest in public activity is lost, and in all spheres of the
Government and society there is a decided feeling of the want
of men. Put an end, Sire, by your magnanimous initiative to
this oppressive situation! Show confidence in your faithful
subjects, and, while discontinuing repression, accord us the
possibility of freely expressing the voice of public opinion,
which is now stifled. The agitation among the students will
cease of itself, and the young men will quietly turn to their
studies as soon as their youthful minds are no longer excited
by the disagreeable conditions which surround them, when they
see the prospect on finishing their education of being allowed
to take a free and useful part in the affairs of their native
land."

{427}

An attempt on the life of a Minister far more important and
more obnoxious than Mr. Bogoliepoff was made on the 22d of
March. This was M. Pobiedonostzeff, Procurator of the Holy
Synod, who has long been credited with being the master-spirit
of evil influence in Russian councils,—a Torquemada of the
nineteenth century, responsible for all the mediævalism in
Russian policy for the past twenty years. Three shots were
fired at the Procurator from the street, through the windows
of his study, and he was missed by them all. The would-be
assassin, named Lagofsky, was promptly seized, and it is
claimed to have been found that he was chosen by lot to
execute an avenging decree. On the other hand, it is reported
that he was moved to the deed by the excommunication of Count
Tolstoi, which the Russian Church had lately pronounced.

If reports are to be credited, the Tzar, at length, took the
direction of measures relating to the disturbances into his own
hands, and began by putting a stop to the forcing of condemned
students into the army. He then appointed to the Ministry of
Public Education General Vannovsky, who had investigated the
student disorders of 1899 for him, and who seems to have
recognized that the disaffection of the students was not without
grounds. It is rumored that unlimited powers for two years have
been given to the new Minister, so that he cannot be interfered
with by the powerful reactionaries who evidently stand between
the best intentions of the Tzar and their execution. The obvious
difficulty of the autocrat is to learn the truth of things and
to know what is being done by those who ostensibly obey his
commands. Apparently he is striving to be served faithfully and
intelligently in this case, and it is to be hoped that he may
have success. He addressed a rescript to General Vannovsky, in
which he said:

"The regular organization of popular education has always
formed one of the chief cares of the Russian rulers, who have
striven, surely but gradually, to perfect it in accordance
with the fundamental principles of Russian life and the
requirements of the times. The experiences of recent years,
however, have shown the existence of defects so material in
our scholastic system that I think that the time has come to
undertake an immediate and thorough revision and improvement.
Highly valuing your experience as a statesman and your
enlightenment, I have chosen you to co-operate with me in the
work of renovating and reorganizing Russian schools; and, in
appointing you to the now specially important office of
Minister of Public Instruction, I am firmly convinced that you
will unswervingly endeavour to attain the goal indicated by me,
and that you will bring into the work of educating the Russian
youth your cordial sympathy and sagacity ripened by
experience. May God bless our work, and may parents and
families, who above all are bound to care for their children,
help us in our work, and then the time will soon come when I
with all my people shall see in the young generation, with
pride and encouragement, the firm and sure hope of the
Fatherland and its strong protection for the future."

The Russian "Official Messenger," St. Petersburg, announced on
the 14th of April that "in consequence of the recent student
disturbances many of the high schools were closed before the
Easter holidays, and the young men were compelled either to
lose a year of their studies or even to leave the college
altogether. In view of the serious consequences which this
measure involved for the career of the students, a special
conference of the principals of the higher colleges was called
to deliberate, under the presidency of the Minister of Public
Instruction, upon the situation thus created. The conference
decided that the following measures were indispensably
necessary for the re-establishment of the regular course of
study at the institutions concerned:

1. Lectures to be renewed in the higher colleges in the course
of April and intermediate examinations under the direction of
the scholastic authorities to be held under the usual
regulations at the customary intervals.

2. The lectures and examinations to be continued during the
summer vacation, should they not have been completed during
the preceding term.

3. All those who without sufficient reason did not attend the
examinations or failed to pass them to be liable to all the
legal consequences thereof.

4. In particularly important cases autumn and supplementary
examinations to be permitted in the higher schools
exceptionally this year."

According to a later despatch from St. Petersburg to the
Associated Press, April 23d, the students of the university at
the capital were informed that day by the rector that "General
Vannoffsky, the Russian Minister of Public Instruction, had
refused to defer the examinations until autumn or make further
concessions to the students. Although the popular professor,
M. Petrozicky, pleaded against an action which would make it
difficult for a liberal minister to carry through his
benevolent intentions, the students decided by a vote of 684
to 649 against participating in the examinations. They
resolved, however, not to create obstruction and the minority
agreed to submit to the will of the majority. The
electro-technical, the civil engineering, the women's medical
and the women's academic institutions also will decide against
taking the examinations. The sincere friends of the students
regret the step in this respect, believing the students should
allow the recall of the absentees to come as an act of grace
from the Government and should not attempt to force
concessions."

RUSSIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Operations in Manchuria.
Practical possession of the country.
Refusal of Chinese government to sign a demanded treaty.

See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900-1901.

RUSSIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Strategic importance of Korea.
Ground of Japanese jealousy.

See (in this volume)
KOREA: A. D. 1900.

RUSSIA: A. D. 1901 (April).
Expulsion of Count Tolstoi.
His reply to the decree of excommunication.

A reply by Count Tolstoi to the decree of excommunication
pronounced against him by the Russian Church, some weeks
before, written at Moscow on the 13th of April, was published
in Paris on the 30th. As reported to the Associated Press, he
states in his reply that, in consequence of the decree, he has
received letters from ignorant people menacing him with death.
{428}
"He characterizes the decree as illegal or intentionally
equivocal, arbitrary, unjustified and full of falsehoods.
Moreover, he says, it constitutes an instigation to evil
sentiments and deeds. Count Tolstoi denounces the practices of
the church, and says he is convinced that the teaching of the
church, theoretically astute, is injurious, is a lie in
practice and is a compound of vulgar superstitions and
sorcery, under which entirely disappears the sense of
Christian doctrine."

By Press despatch from Vienna, April 23, it was reported that
a decree expelling Count Tolstoi from Russia had been signed
by the Tzar, and carried into execution.

RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
The Trans-Siberian Railway.
Resources of Siberia and the Amur country.

The following account was reported to the British Foreign
Office in June, 1900:

"For over 30 years the question of constructing this line had
been a theme of interminable discussions and reports. Finally,
the following unmistakeably emphatic note of its Imperial
founder, the Emperor Alexander III., appended to a report on
the general condition of Siberia, moved the whole project
definitely forward as a thing that was to be and at once: 'How
many of these reports of the Governors-General of Siberia have
I perused, and with sorrow and shame must own that the
Government has hitherto hardly done anything to satisfy the
demands of this rich but neglected region! It is time, indeed
time!' A further equally emphatic and still briefer note,
added to a report of the Minister of Ways with regard to the
projected Ussuri route, is to form the appropriate inscription
to the monument to be erected at Vladivostock, the terminus of
his great work, to his late Imperial Majesty: 'The
construction of this railway must be begun forthwith.' The
first stone was laid at Vladivostock on May 19, 1891, by the
then Grand Duke Nicholas, now the reigning Emperor. … A
Siberian railway committee was formed under the presidency of
the then Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich, whose duties were

(1) to construct the main and necessary feeding lines;

(2) to take measures for the general commercial and industrial
development of Siberia; and

(3) to direct and control the colonisation movement.

"Taking the direction of the route, not as it was to have
been, but as it is or will be, we see that with Moscow as the
European centre point, and the Moscow-Samara-Cheliabinsk line
as its principal feeder, the main road runs from Cheliabinsk,
whence it really starts eastward, direct through mid-Siberia
to Lake Baikal, and thence, viâ Chita, to Stretensk on the
Shilka, a navigable tributary of the Amur. At present, the
projected course of the railway viâ the Amur has been
arrested, owing on the one hand to various technical
difficulties, and on the other to the facilities, political
and otherwise, conceded by China, and another direction, in
the nature of a short cut through Manchuria, has been entered
upon. The well-known agreement with China [see, in this
volume, CHINA: A. D. 1895] and the formation of the Chinese
Eastern Railway Company, rendering the original continuation
of the line from Stretensk less urgent, it has been resolved,
instead, to construct two direct lines to the Chinese
frontiers, from Kaidalovo on the main Siberian route on the
one side, and from the Ussuri or Habarovsk-Vladivostock line
on the other. These two lines, traversing Manchuria from
opposite directions, are to meet at Khulan-Chan (Khaorbin),
thence running southwards to Dalni and Port Arthur. Thus, we
see the three lines, the main Siberian road, which, except for
the brief stoppage at Lake Baikal, will run in a practically
straight and uninterrupted course from Cheliabinsk to
Vladivostock; the Ussuri line running northward through
Russian territory from Vladivostock to Habarovsk; and the
branch section from Khulan-Chan (Khaorbin), on the main line,
striking out southward through Eastern China to Dalni and Port
Arthur.

"As far as Russia is concerned, it may be said that her
portion of the work is practically ready, though much
re-laying and reconstruction may at any time be necessary. The
main line is open for regular traffic from Cheliabinsk to Lake
Baikal, and for provisional traffic to Stretensk. According to
the latest telegrams, regular traffic from Lake Baikal to
Stretensk is to be commenced on July 1/14, 1900. Thus, there
is now a direct run (excepting only the lake crossing of 60
versts (about 40 miles), from Moscow, viâ Samara, Cheliabinsk,
Omsk, and Irkutch, to Kaidalovo (252 versts—168 miles—this
side of Stretensk), whence the rail will turn off to Nagodan
on the Chinese frontier. This latter stretch, a distance of
325 versts (216 miles), will complete the work as regards
Russia. The Ussuri line, from Habarovsk to Vladivostock, has
been open for traffic since 1897. The Circum-Baikal connecting
line, round the southern bend of the lake, a distance of 292
versts (195 miles), remains to be laid, the lake being crossed
at present by steam ferries or ice-breakers. A new
ice-breaker, built in England, is now on its way in pieces to
Lake Baikal. It is the Manchurian sections, therefore, that at
present retard the consummation of the complete overland track
to Vladivostock. Nor, from recent accounts, does it seem
likely that the Chinese engaged in the work will bring it to a
conclusion much before 1902, if then. Even now, however, goods
can make their way through Siberia to Stretensk by rail, and
thence down the Shilka and the Amur to Habarovsk, or further
on, by the Ussuri line, to Vladivostock. As regards the
railroad from Port Arthur northward, the latest news brings it
to Telin, north of Mukden, trains with workmen running this
distance, some 500 versts. The Chinese Eastern Railway Company
promise to join Port Arthur to Vladivostock by October next,
it is said, but, even on the route already temporarily in
rough working order, dwellings, stations and permanent bridges
have yet to be built. Thus, there is now direct communication
between Moscow and Stretensk by rail, a distance of 6,471
versts (4,214 miles), and from Stretensk to Habarovsk and
Nikolaieff by the Shilka and Amur rivers, a further distance
to Habarovsk of about 2,000 versts (1,332 miles), and to
Nikolaieff, the mouth of the Amur, of over 3,000 versts (2,000
miles). The Amur is navigable from May to September, but for
shallow-draft vessels only.

"Various important European feeding lines have been
constructed, and others, partaking more of the character of
huge main thoroughfares are projected. Cheliabinsk, the
starting-point eastwards, is connected with Moscow by the
Zlatoust-Samara-Moscow Railway, which, touching the Volga at
Samara, crosses it at Sisran.
{429}
Two northern branches, the Tiumen-Perm, and
Kotlass-Viatka-Perm, meeting at Ekaterinburg, the capital of
the rich Ural mineral district, run into the main Siberian
line at Cheliabinsk. From this latter point, too, a new route
has long been projected direct to St. Petersburg, via Viatka
and Vologda. So that, while the future will connect
Cheliabinsk, and with it the main Siberian railway, in a
direct line with the Baltic, not as now via Moscow, the
present joins it on the one side with that city, the business
centre of Russia, and on the other to the new northern through
route, which, via Kotlass and Archangel, is this year to bring
the cereals of Siberia to London."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Miscellaneous Series No. 533,
1900, pages 5-7)._

"It may be a wild idea, but Russian engineers are actually
talking of a railroad from Stryetensk to Bering Strait, over a
comparatively easy route that does not enter the Arctic
Circle. This imaginary line, they hope, would connect with the
American line which is now being built to Dawson City, the
distance from which to Stryetensk is about three thousand
miles. If this road ever is completed they figure that New
York will be placed in railroad connection with London,
Calcutta and Cape Town."

_A. H. Ford,
The Warfare of Railways in Asia
(Century, March, 1900)._

"Siberia and the Amur lands are rich beyond belief. … This
vast territory, long looked upon as a barren waste, is
destined to be one of the world's richest and most productive
sections. In northern France, wheat ripens in 137 days; in
Siberia, in 107. Even heavy night frosts do not injure the
young seed. Under such conditions, the possibilities of
agriculture are practically unlimited. I may add that oats
require, in Siberia and in the Amur country, only 96 days, and
in the regions of the Yenisei only 107. The frost period lasts
only 97 days in the Irkutsk country. Transbaikalia lies
entirely within the agricultural regions; so, too, almost the
entire territory traversed by the Amur as far north as it
runs. Efforts are being made to obtain along the Amur at least
300,000 square kilometers (115,835 square miles) for the
higher forms of northern agriculture. Climatically, the best
of northern Asia's territory, for planting purposes, is the
Usuri country, which, in spite of its vast tracts of wood and
grazing lands, has 195,000 square kilometers (75,292 square
miles) of arable ground. The building of the Trans-Siberian
Railroad has already added to the Empire's wheat product.

"The mineral resources of western Siberia are vast. Between
Tomsk and Kooznesk lie 60,000 square kilometers (23,167 square
miles) of coal lands which have never been touched. The coal
is said to be excellent. In eastern Siberia, with its 280,000
square kilometers (108,112 square miles) of fruitful soil,
there are 400 places yielding gold. Rich mineral
deposits—graphite, lapis lazuli; iron mines, particularly rich
in quality (as high as 60 per cent); hard and soft coals, i.
e., black and brown coals—await hands willing to work for
them. To-day, thousands of colonists are hurrying to these
promising lands. Russia's output in gold and silver is already
very large, and is constantly increasing.

"The industries of Siberia are in their infancy; still, they
are growing and are bound to grow, so rich are the rewards
promised. Chemical, sugar, and paper mills have been put up in
several places and are paying well. Even Manchuria, a province so
vast that it might make an empire, is looking to Russia for
its future development. The wealth of this province, like that
of Siberia and all eastern Russia, is ripe for harvesting. The
traffic in Siberia and eastern Russia is increasing faster
than even the advocates of the great Trans-Siberian road
anticipated. The Ob, one of the world's big rivers, emptying
through the Gulf of Ob into the Arctic Ocean, has 102 steamers
and 200 tugs running already. On the Yenisei, 10 steamers
carry the mails regularly. The mouths of both these rivers
were visited last summer by English and Russian ships. This
proves the practicability of connecting eastern and western
Siberia with Europe by water."

_United States Consular Reports,
November, 1899, page 411._

An official publication of the year 1900 from St. Petersburg,
furnished to American journals by the Russian embassy at
Washington, is the source of the following statements relative
to the rapid development of the vast Siberian country along
the line of the great railway:

"When viewed with reference to colonization Siberia divides
itself naturally into two zones, extending east and west, and
differing essentially from one another. The first of these
embraces the region traversed by the new Siberian railway, the
more populous southern portion of Siberia, in which the
conditions of climate and soil are favorable to the
development of agriculture and colonization. The other zone
occupies the extensive, deserted northern region, the land of
tundras, or polar marshes, with a constantly frozen subsoil
and a severe climate, a dreary tract of land totally unfit for
agriculture. Between these two zones stretches a broad belt of
forests of tall trees, partly primeval pine and fir, partly
leafy trees. The wealth of these broad agricultural and timber
areas is, moreover, augmented by mineral deposits of every
conceivable nature, as abundant and diversified as those of
America, and into this whole region immigration is pouring in
volume unequalled except in the history of American
colonization. Ever since the serfs were emancipated in 1861
they have formed the bulk of the emigrants from the thickly
populated agricultural districts of European Russia, but the
great tide of settlers in the new territory is only now
assuming tremendous proportions. During the twenty years'
period of 1860 to 1880 about 110,000 persons emigrated to
Siberia, while for the thirteen years from 1880 to 1892 there
were over 440,000, and for the succeeding years since the
great railway has been building the number of immigrants of
both sexes has been as follows:

1893, 65,000;
1894, 76,000;
1895, 109,000;
1896, 203,000;
1897, 87,000;
1898, 206,000;
1899, 225,000.
Total, 971,000.

According to the census of 1897, the population of Siberia had
risen to 8,188,368 inhabitants, of which the Russian peasantry
formed over 25 per cent."

RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1899 (May).
Steps toward the abolition of transportation.

See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (MAY).

{430}

RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1900.
Russian railway building and railway projects in
Persia and Afghanistan.

By several writers who seem to have knowledge of what is doing
in those parts of the eastern world, it was reported in the
spring of 1900 that an active projection, planning, and
building (to some extent) of railroads in Persia and
Afghanistan was on foot among the Russians. From Tiflis, it
was said, their plans contemplated a line of rail to Teheran;
thence to be extended by one branch, southward, via Ispahan,
to the Persian Gulf, and by another branch westward to Herat,
in Afghanistan. From their Central Asian acquisitions they had
advanced their railway to within 70 miles of Herat, and were
said to be confidently expecting to push it on, through
Kandahar and through Baluchistan, to the Arabian Sea. If these
extensive plans could be carried out, and if Russian influence
in Persia, said to be growing fast, should become actually
controlling, the Muscovite Power would have made an enormous
gain, by planting itself on the shores of the Indian Ocean.
How far Russia can continue to press forward in this line of
policy without collision with Great Britain and with
Germany—which seems to have aims in the same direction,
through Asiatic Turkey—is an interesting question for the
future.

The following is from a despatch to the "London Times" from
its correspondent at Vienna, February 24, 1901:

"According to trustworthy information from Teheran, Russia is
particularly active just now in Persia and the Persian Gulf. …
The road from Resht to Teheran, which has been built by a
Russian company, is of no value for European trade in the
absence of an agreement with Russia respecting the transit
traffic through that country. European commerce is dependent
upon the long and expensive caravan routes via Trebizond,
Bushire, Baghdad, Mochamera,&c. These occupy from four to six
months."

RUSSO-CHINESE BANK, Concessions to the.

See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

S.

SAGASTA, Señor Praxedes Mateo:
Resignation from Spanish Ministry.

See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.

SAGASTA, Señor Praxedes Mateo:
Return to power.

See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).

SAGASTA, Señor Praxedes Mateo:
Resignation.

See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1899.

SAGHALIEN.

See (in this volume)
SAKHALIN.

SAHARA, The: French possessions.

See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.

ST. KITTS: Industrial condition.

See (in this volume)
WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.

ST. LOUIS: A. D. 1896.
Republican National Convention.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).

ST. VINCENT, The British colony of.

See (in this volume)
WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.

SAKHALIN.

"Of late years … its increasing importance as a place of exile
for Russian political and criminal offenders has invested
Sakhalin with a certain interest, derived, perhaps, more from
penal associations than physical resources, which latter may,
when fully developed, materially affect trade and commerce in
the far East. The island of Sakhalin is 584 miles in length,
its breadth varying from 18 to 94 miles. The southern
extremity is separated from the island of Yezo, twenty miles
distant, by the Straits of La Perouse, and its western coast
by the shallow Gulf of Tartary (at one point barely five miles
across) from the mainland of Siberia. Although Dutch explorers
are said to have landed here in 1643, the first reliable
survey of the island was probably obtained in the year 1787 by
La Perouse. Russian fur traders followed in the early part of
the present century, but it was only in 1853 that,
disturbances having occurred with the natives, a score or so
of Cossacks were stationed at Dui on the west coast. In 1867
negotiations were entered into by the Russian and Japanese
Governments for joint occupation of Sakhalin, but the
subsequent discovery of coal, and consequent influx of Russian
convicts, rendered this arrangement highly unsatisfactory.
Further negotiations, therefore, ensued, with the result that,
in 1875, the island was formally ceded to Russia, Japan
receiving, in exchange, the entire Kurile Archipelago.

"Sakhalin is by no means easy of access. Even during the open
season (from May to September) but very few vessels visit the
island, and, with the exception of the monthly arrival of
convict-ships from Europe, and a couple of small Russian trading
steamers, there is no fixed service with Vladivostok, which, with
the exception of Nikolaefsk, is the only Siberian port whence
Sakhalin may, in three days, be reached. During the winter months
the island is completely ice-bound and unapproachable by water.
Communication with the mainland is then maintained by means of
dog-sledges, and the mails for Europe are dispatched across
the frozen Gulf of Tartary—a journey, under favourable
circumstances, of about three months. …

"Sakhalin is, for administrative purposes, divided into three
districts, viz.: Korsakovsky-Post in the south, Tymovsk in the
north, and Alexandrovsky-Post on the western coast. The
latter, which is situated in the centre of the coal district,
is a picturesque, straggling town of about 7,000 inhabitants,
consisting almost entirely of officials and convicts. This is
the most important penal settlement on the island, contains
the largest prison, and is, moreover, the residence of the
Governor of Sakhalin, a subordinate of the Governor-General of
Eastern Siberia. Alexandrovsky is garrisoned by about 1,500
men, and contains large foundries and workshops for convict
labour, but most of the prisoners are employed in the adjacent
coal mines of Dui. … Korsakovsky-Post, on the south coast, is
the next largest settlement, containing about 5,000 convicts
who are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits. Although it
may seem a paradox, the remaining prisons in the interior of
the island, Derbynskaya, Rykovskaya, and Onor are not prisons
at all, but huge wooden barracks, innocent of bolts and bars.
Here, also, the work done is solely agricultural."

_Harry de Windt,
The Island of Sakhalin
(Fortnightly Review, May, 1897)._

SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of:
Third Ministry.

See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.

{431}

SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of:
Correspondence with the Government of the United States
on the Venezuela boundary question.

See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (JULY) and (NOVEMBER).

SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of:
Fourth Ministry.

See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).

SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of:
Tribute to Queen Victoria.

See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

SALISBURY PLAIN: Purchase by Government.

See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY).

SALVADOR.

See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA.

SALVATION ARMY, The:
Secession of the American Volunteers.
Late account of the Army's work.

Much feeling in the American branch of the Salvation Army, and
among those who valued its work, was caused in January, 1896,
by an order from the London headquarters of the Army recalling
Mr. Ballington Booth, who had been its American Commander for
nine years. Commander Booth and Mrs. Booth had been remarkably
successful in their organization and direction of the
Salvation Army work, and had won a high place in the esteem,
not only of their own followers, but of the American public at
large. A wide and strong movement of protest against their
removal from the field failed to change the London order,
which was said to be made in obedience to a necessary rule of
the Army against long service in any one post. Miss Eva Booth,
representing her father, General Booth, with Colonel Nicol, from
London, and Commandant Herbert Booth, from Canada, came to New
York as mediators, endeavoring to heal a threatened breach in
the ranks; but their mission failed. Commander Ballington
Booth resigned his office, and withdrew from the Salvation
Army service, declining to return to London. After a time, he
and Mrs. Booth became the heads of a new organization called
the "Volunteers of America," for religious work, not in
rivalry with that of the Salvation Army, but directed more
towards the awakening of the interest of the working people,
Mr. Ballington Booth was succeeded as Commander in America by
a son-in-law of General Booth, Commissioner Frederick St.
Clair Tucker. —For an account of the origin and growth of the
Salvation Army see, under that heading, in the Supplement
(volume 5) of the original edition of this work, or in volume
4 of the revised edition.

Of results accomplished in that part of the work of the
Salvation Army known as the "Darkest England Scheme," General
Booth wrote, early in 1900, an extended account in the "Sunday
Strand." He stated that the public had subscribed altogether
for his scheme about $1,300,000. "It is a debated point," he
wrote, "with the intelligent admirers of the scheme and the
careful observers of its progress whether the benefits
bestowed on the wretched classes for whom it was originated
have been greater within than without our borders. The
copyists of our plan have been legion, both at home and
abroad, in church and state. The representatives of the
different governments specially charged with the
responsibility for the outcast classes have been gradually
coming to appreciate the principles and methods involved in
the scheme, and to show willingness to cooperate in giving it
a chance. They have done this in two ways:

(1) In attempting similar tasks themselves;
(2) in using and subsidizing the army for doing the work for
them.

Many governments make grants to our various institutions in
varying amounts toward the cost of dealing with different
classes of the submerged."

The following is a summary of the agencies which have been set
at work by the general: "We have now 158 shelters and food
depots for homeless men and women, 121 slum posts, each with
its own slum sisters, 37 labor bureaus, (10 labor factories
for the unemployed, 11 land colonies, 91 rescue homes for
women, 11 labor homes for ex-criminals, several nursing
institutions, 2 maternity hospitals for deserted women, an
institution with branches in forty-five countries and colonies
for finding lost and missing persons, together with a host of
allied and minor agencies which I am not able here to
enumerate. The total number of institutions named above is now
545, under the care of more than 2,000 trained officers and
others wholly employed, all working in harmony with the
principles I have laid down for helping the poorest and most
unfortunate of their fellows, and all more or less experts at
their work.

"Nearly 20,000 destitute men and women are in some way or
other touched by the operations of the scheme every day. No
less than 15,000 wretched and otherwise homeless people are
housed under our roofs every night, having their needs met, at
least in part, with sympathy and prayer and the opportunity
for friendly counsel. More than 300 ex-criminals are to-day in
our houses of reformation, having before them another chance
for this life, and in many cases the first they have ever had
for preparing for the life to come. More than 5,000 women
taken from lives of darkness and shame are safely sheltered in
our homes each year, on the way—as we have abundantly proved
in the case of others, in respect of a large proportion of
them—to a future of virtue, goodness, and religion. Over 1,000
men are employed on the land colonies. Many of them are working
out their own deliverance, and at the same time helping to
solve one of the most difficult problems of modern times, and
proving that many of the helpless loafers of the great cities
can be made useful producers on the soil. Over the gates of
every one of these homes, elevators, labor factories, and
colonies there might be written: 'No man or woman need starve,
or beg, or pauperize, or steal, or commit suicide. If willing
to work, apply within. Here there is hope for all.'" General
Booth adds that he has always 2,000 women in the rescue homes
of the army.

SAMOAN ISLANDS, The:
Ending of the joint control of the Islands by Germany,
England and the United States.
Partition between Germany and the United States.
Retirement of England.

Said President Cleveland, in his annual Message to the
Congress of the United States, December 4, 1893: "Led by a
desire to compose differences and contribute to the
restoration of order in Samoa, which for some years previous
had been the scene of conflicting foreign pretensions and
native strife, the United States, departing from its policy
consecrated by a century of observance, entered [in 1889] …
into the, treaty of Berlin [see, in volume 4, SAMOA], thereby
becoming jointly bound with England and Germany to establish
and maintain Malietoa Laupepa as King of Samoa.
{432}
The treaty provided for a foreign court of justice; a
municipal council for the district of Apia, with a foreign
president thereof, authorized to advise the King; a tribunal
for the settlement of native and foreign land titles, and a
revenue system for the Kingdom. It entailed upon the three
powers that part of the cost of the new Government not met by
the revenue of the islands. Early in the life of this triple
protectorate the native dissensions it was designed to quell
revived. Rivals defied the authority of the new King, refusing
to pay taxes and demanding the election of a ruler by native
suffrage. Mataafa, an aspirant to the throne, and a large
number of his native adherents were in open rebellion on one
of the islands. Quite lately, at the request of the other
powers and in fulfillment of its treaty obligation, this
Government agreed to unite in a joint military movement of
such dimensions as would probably secure the surrender of the
insurgents without bloodshed. The war ship Philadelphia was
accordingly put under orders for Samoa, but before she arrived
the threatened conflict was precipitated by King Malietoa's
attack upon the insurgent camp. Mataafa was defeated and a
number of his men killed. The British and German naval vessels
present subsequently secured the surrender of Mataafa and his
adherents. The defeated chief and ten of his principal
supporters were deported to a German island of the Marshall
group, where they are held as prisoners under the joint
responsibility and cost of the three powers. This incident and
the events leading up to it signally illustrate the impolicy
of entangling alliances with foreign powers."

_United States, Message and Documents
(Abridgment), 1893-1894._

In his next annual Message, December 3, 1894, the President
thus summarized the later situation in the islands: "The
suppression of the Mataafa insurrection by the powers and the
subsequent banishment of the leader and eleven other chiefs,
as recited in my last message, did not bring lasting peace to
the islands. Formidable uprisings continued, and finally a
rebellion broke out in the capital island, Upolu, headed in
Aana, the western district, by the younger Tamasese, and in
Atua, the eastern district, by other leaders. The insurgents
ravaged the country and fought the Government's troops up to
the very doors of Apia. The King again appealed to the powers
for help, and the combined British and German naval forces
reduced the Atuans to apparent subjection, not, however,
without considerable loss to the natives. A few days later
Tamasese and his adherents, fearing the ships and the marines,
professed submission. Reports received from our agents at Apia
do not justify the belief that the peace thus brought about
will be of long duration. It is their conviction that the
natives are at heart hostile to the present Government, that
such of them as profess loyalty to it do so from fear of the
powers, and that it would speedily go to pieces if the war
ships were withdrawn. … The present Government has utterly
failed to correct, if indeed it has not aggravated, the very
evils it was intended to prevent. It has not stimulated our
commerce with the islands. Our participation in its
establishment against the wishes of the natives was in plain
defiance of the conservative teachings and warnings of the
wise and patriotic men who laid the foundations of our free
institutions, and I invite an expression of the judgment of
Congress on the propriety of steps being taken by this
Government looking to the withdrawal from its engagements with
the other powers on some reasonable terms not prejudicial to
any of our existing rights."

_United States, Message and Documents
(Abridgment, 1894-1895)._

In the Message of 1895 the subject was again pressed on the
attention of Congress without result.

In August, 1898, Malietoa Laupepa died. By the Berlin Treaty
of 1889 "it was provided that in case any question should
arise in Samoa, respecting the rightful election of King, or
of any other Chief claiming authority over the islands, or
respecting the validity of the powers which the King or any
Chief might claim in the exercise of his office, such question
should not lead to war, but should be presented for decision
to the Chief Justice of Samoa, who should decide it in
writing, conformably to the provisions of the Act, and to the
laws and customs of Samoa not in conflict therewith, and that
the Signatory Governments would accept and abide by such
decision. After the death of Malietoa an exchange of views
took place between the Powers, and it was agreed that there
should be no interference with the right of the Samoans to
elect a King, and that the election should proceed strictly in
accordance with the provisions of the Final Act. Some time
elapsed before any action was taken, pending the completion of
certain ceremonial usages customary in Samoa on the death of a
High Chief. … As soon as the funeral ceremonies were at an end,
deliberation and discussion among the Chiefs ensued. There
were in the first instance several candidates for the
succession. Their number was eventually reduced to two:

1. Malietoa Tanu, the son of the late King.
2. The High Chief Mataafa.

This Chief had been in rebellion against Malietoa Laupepa, but
had suffered defeat, and with other Chiefs had been deported,
by agreement between the three Powers, to the Marshall
Islands. On the recommendation of the Consular officers at
Apia, the Powers, in July 1898, consented to his return. … On
the 19th September, Mataafa and the other exiled Chiefs landed
in Samoa. It does not appear that he took any overt steps to
claim the vacant throne, but a section of the natives
pronounced in his favour and announced on the 12th November to
the Consuls and to the Chief Justice that he had been duly
elected King. On the 13th November the opposing faction
declared that the real election of a King had not taken place,
and on the following day announced that their choice had
fallen upon Malietoa Tanu. Both parties appealed to Mr.
Chambers, the Chief Justice, who considered himself then in a
position to take cognisance of the matter, according to the
provisions of the Final Act, a question having arisen 'in
Samoa respecting the rightful election or appointment of
King.'"

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Samoa, Number 1, 1899)._

The decision of the Chief Justice was in favor of Malietoa
Tanu, and the adherents of Mataafa took up arms, defeating
those of the favored candidate and driving many of them to
take refuge on British and German ships of war. Subsequent
events were related by the President of the United States in
his Message to Congress, December 5, 1899, as follows: "In
this emergency a joint commission of representatives of the
United States, Germany, and Great Britain was sent to Samoa to
investigate the situation and provide a temporary remedy.
{433}
By its active efforts a peaceful solution was reached for the
time being, the kingship being abolished and a provisional
government established. Recommendations unanimously made by
the commission for a permanent adjustment of the Samoan
question were taken under consideration by the three powers
parties to the General Act. But the more they were examined
the more evident it became that a radical change was necessary
in the relations of the powers to Samoa. The inconveniences
and possible perils of the tripartite scheme of supervision
and control in the Samoan group by powers having little
interest in common in that quarter beyond commercial rivalry
had been once more emphasized by the recent events. The
suggested remedy of the Joint Commission, like the scheme it
aimed to replace, amounted to what has been styled a
'tridominium,' being the exercise of the functions of
sovereignty by an unanimous agreement of three powers. The
situation had become far more intricate and embarrassing from
every point of view than it was when my predecessor, in 1894,
summed up its perplexities and condemned the participation in
it of the United States. The arrangement under which Samoa was
administered had proved impracticable and unacceptable to all
the powers concerned. To withdraw from the agreement and
abandon the islands to Germany and Great Britain would not be
compatible with our interests in the archipelago. To
relinquish our rights in the harbor of Pago Pago, the best
anchorage in the Pacific, the occupancy of which had been
leased to the United States in 1878 by the first foreign
treaty ever concluded by Samoa, was not to be thought of
either as regards the needs of our Navy or the interests of
our growing commerce with the East. We could not have
considered any proposition for the abrogation of the
tripartite control which did not confirm us in all our rights
and safeguard all our national interests in the islands. Our
views commended themselves to the other powers. A satisfactory
arrangement was concluded between the Governments of Germany
and of England, by virtue of which England retired from Samoa
in view of compensations in other directions, and both powers
renounced in favor of the United States all their rights and
claims over and in respect to that portion of the group lying
to the east of the one hundred and seventy-first degree of
west longitude, embracing the islands of Tutuila, Ofoo,
Olosenga, and Manua."

_United States, Message and Documents (Abridgment),
1899-1900, volume 1._

The compensations to England "in other directions" were given
by Germany, in the following provisions of a treaty signed at
London, November 14, 1899:

"ARTICLE II.
Germany renounces in favour of Great Britain all her rights
over the Tonga Islands, including Vavau, and over Savage
Island, including the right of establishing a naval station
and coaling station, and the right of extra-territoriality in
the said islands. … She recognizes as falling to Great Britain
those of the Solomon Islands, at present belonging to Germany,
which are situated to the east and southeast of the Island of
Bougainville, which latter shall continue to belong to
Germany, together with the Island of Buka, which forms part of
it. The western portion of the neutral zone in West Africa, as
defined in Article V of the present Convention, shall also
fall to the share of Great Britain. …

"ARTICLE IV.
The arrangement at present existing between Germany and Great
Britain and concerning the right of Germany to freely engage
labourers in the Solomon Islands belonging to Great Britain
shall be equally extended to those of the Solomon Islands
mentioned in Article II, which fall to the share of Great
Britain.

"ARTICLE V.
In the neutral zone the frontier between the German and
English territories shall be formed by the River Daka as far
as the point of its intersection with the 9th degree of north
latitude, thence the frontier shall continue to the north,
leaving Morozugu to Great Britain, and shall be fixed on the
spot by a Mixed Commission of the two Powers, in such manner
that Gambaga and all the territories of Mamprusi shall fall to
Great Britain, and that Yendi and all the territories of Chakosi
shall fall to Germany.

"ARTICLE VI.
Germany is prepared to take into consideration, as much and as
far as possible, the wishes which the Government of Great
Britain may express with regard to the development of the
reciprocal Tariffs in the territories of Togo and of the Gold
Coast.

"ARTICLE VII.
Germany renounces her rights of extra-territoriality in
Zanzibar, but it is at the same time understood that this
renunciation shall not effectively come into force till such
time as the rights of extra-territoriality enjoyed there by
other nations shall be abolished."

To the treaty was appended the following "Declaration":

"It is clearly understood that by Article II of the Convention
signed to-day, Germany consents that the whole group of the
Howe Islands, which forms part of the Solomon Islands, shall
fall to Great Britain. It is also understood that the
stipulations of the Declaration between the two Governments
signed at Berlin on the 10th April, 1886, respecting freedom
of commerce in the Western Pacific, apply to the islands
mentioned in the aforesaid Convention. It is similarly
understood that the arrangement at present in force as to the
engagement of labourers by Germans in the Solomon Islands
permits Germans to engage those labourers on the same
conditions as those which are or which shall be imposed on
British subjects nonresident in those islands."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publication,
(Papers by Command: Treaty Series, Number 7, 1900)._

Article III of the general treaty between the United States,
Germany and Great Britain stipulated: "It is understood and
agreed that each of the three signatory Powers shall continue
to enjoy, in respect to their commerce and commercial vessels,
in all the islands of the Samoan group, privileges and
conditions equal to those enjoyed by the sovereign Power, in
all ports which may be open to the commerce of either of
them."

_United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 157._

{434}

On the 17th of April, 1900, an "instrument of cession" was
signed by the marks of twenty-two chiefs, conveying to the
United States the islands of the Samoan group lying east of
the 171st degree of west longitude, and the American flag was
raised over the naval station at Pago-Pago. From Pago-Pago,
March 27, 1901, a Press despatch announced: "The natives under
the United States Government number 5,800, according to a
census just taken, while the natives in the other islands
under German rule number 32,000. The population has increased
very slightly in the last thirty years, and the main cause of
this failure to increase is the infant mortality, due to the
violation of the simplest health principles in the care and
diet of children. … Reports from the six islands under United
States control show that the natives are improving in general
conditions, and that they show a desire to keep their houses
neat and to educate their children. Not a single native has
been arrested for drunkenness since the Americans assumed
control of Tutuila island."

SAMPSON, Rear-Admiral William T.:
Commanding North Atlantic Station.
Blockade of Cuban ports.