Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Wednesday 8 January 1879, page 5


Russia and China in Central Asia.

(From the Times.)

The various telegrams that have recently been published with reference to the authorised Chinese embassy to St Petersburg call attention to the fact that the Kuldja question, which was raised by the Chinese reconquest of the Tungan country and of Eastern Turkestan, may be expected shortly to come on for discussion and solution. Although little understood in this country, this question is not without its importance, and bears a very significant aspect indeed when the future of the relations between Russia and China in Central Asia is the matter in discussion. The overthrow of the Tuugani, who had erected in the various cities of Hamil, Barkul, Guchen, Urumtsi, and Man's a con-federacy of no mean power, was consummated with the capture of the last of these cities in November, 1876. In the early spring of 1877 the first step towards the recovery of Eastern Turkestan was taken by the defeat of Yakoob Beg outside Turfan and the occupation of that city. Yakoob Beg died at Koria either in May or June; and in September following the Chinese commenced their forward movement against Kucha and the western portion of Kashgaria. Suffice it here to say that the movements of the Chinese Viceroy and General Tao Tang Tang were crowned with complete success, and that the capital, Kasbgar, surrendered before Christmas, 1827, and that the remainder of the State had come to terms with the Chinese long before the month of February in the present year. By these brilliant successes a Chinese army, flushed with victory, found itself on the Russian frontier, and close to its old possession of Iii, or Kuldja, with only the Tien Shan, pierced here by several passes, intervening. It was generally understood that this campaign in the north-west had only been undertaken for the express purpose of restoring all the vast possessions of China to the Emperor and consequently, so long as Russia retained possession of Hi, the task remained unaccomplished. In view of this fact, and admitting, as in face of recent events it is impossible to deny that the Chinese are not to be turned aside by danger or natural obstacles from attaining what they desire, it may be interesting to say something of this Kuldja question, of which we shall shortly be hearing so much. Whereas ChinacrushedtheTunganiundthe Atalik Ghazi alike by the exercise of force, it is by diplomacy in the first place that she aspires to recover In, the most prized of all her Central Asian possessions. It would be rash, however, to assert that, peaceful means failing, the Chinese will decline to proceed to force, although it is probable that they would postpone their action until Russia was embarrassed elsewhere. Of one thing we may be quite certain, and that is that the Chinese will never rest content in Central Asia until they regain possession of Hi. We purpose, then, to trace back the history of the relations between Russia and China in this portion of Asia, in order that the present difficulty may be correctly appreciated.

Up to the year 1882, Russia and China were close neighbors from the Arno to the Narym. They were also friendly neighbors. There are treaties between the two Governments bearing on all points of intercourse from Manchuria to Hi There are special treaties between the Viceroy. of Hi and the Russian Government. The great Treaty of Kuldja, ratified in 1851, threw open the rich parts of Iii and Cbuguchak (Tarbagates) to the enterprise of Russian merchants. The treaty of Pekin in 1860 more than ratified those provisions and emphasised the good understanding which had previously existed along the whole frontier. The cession of the western portion of Iii to Russia, including as it did the important place of Vernon, enabled Russian merchants to reap the fullest benefit of their good understanding with China. When, therefore, the Tungani revolt broke out in the country lying between the Great Wall and the Pamir and Lake Issik Kui, it was a great blow to Russian commerce to find that the friendly Chinese had been supplanted by fanatical, and consequently hostile, MahomodaiiB. Yet the Russians held aloof from those intestine disturbances, and slowly proceeded with the absorption of Western Turkestan. They preserved neutrality while the Atalik Ghazi was subduing Altyshahr, the land of the six cities, and while the Tongans were establishing a firm rule between Kasbgar and China. But it Kuldja the question was more intricate. There were two rival elements almost equal in strength and resources, and when the Chinese had been massacred the question arose which of the two factions was to be supreme. These factions were the Tungan and the Tarantchis. The former were of the same nice as the Mungana and Kasbgar and further east, and the latter were the descendants of the old inhabitants of Kasbgar, who had been at various times compelled to Bettie in Iii by order of the Chinese. Between these in 1864-67 a bitter contest ensued, and although the former appear to have had the best of the fighting, a compromise was agreed upon between them. They elected a chief, a Tungan, we believe, named Abul Oghlan, and during some years this irregular sort of government existed in 111 But it was only a veiled anarchy, and Russian merchants feared to enter the province on account of the outspoken antipathies of Abul Oghlan. All Russia's previous diplomatic arrangements became a dead letter, and all Ignatheir's skill and tact of no avail in face of Tungan truculence. It was impossible for Russian caravans to proceed to Kuldja during the existence of such confusion, and it was equally useless for them to think of reaching Chugucbak, where a sanguinary war had broken out between Kirghiz and Calmucks, resulting in the triumph of the latter, who have ever since retained possession of it for China. But although Russia's trade lan-guished, she so occupied was she in Khokand, Bokhara, and Khiva, still abstained from interference either in Kuldja or Kasbgar ; but in the year 1870 the question assumed a more significant aspect on account of the astonishing success of Yakoob Beg. When Kucha fell into his possession, and the rulers of Turfan and Urumtsi Bent an humble embassies to the conqueror, the Russians began to be nervous about the future fate of Kulda. This doubt increased when the Atalik Ghazi fortified Uah Turfan, in the mountains, and began to push his outposts closer in towards Kuldja. The Russians had held aloof when it was simply a question of commerce, but Yakoob Beg's threatening attitude in 1870-71 acted as a spur to their inclinations, and it was resolved to forestall their dangerous neighbor. In May, 1871, the Russians crossed into Kuldja, and during the next month General Kolpakosky followed with the main army, some 2000 strong. The Tungan-Tarantchi Government offered little opposition, and Abul Oghlan surrendered to General Kolpakoveky on the 4th of July. The disappearance of this hybrid rule in Kuldja was an unqualified benefit to all concerned. Seventy-five thousand slaves were released by order of the Russians, and commerce once more ventured to return in the rear of victory and good rule. In the proclamation Russia annexed Kuldja " in perpetuity," and formed out of it the Government of Priilinsk ; but this in perpetuity" was explained at Pekin to mean until the Chinese were strong enough to reassert their sway. On several occasions that definition has been repeated, and the Chinese have now naturally requested the Russians to be as good as their word. Russia has replied with a demand for compensation, and has fied it at a figure which the Chinese declare to be exorbitant, and to exceed the total cost of the north-west campaign. It is to arrange this little difficulty that the Chinese have sent

special embassy to St. Petersburg, and some time will yet elapse before the discussion can come on. There is good reason for believing that Russia is loth to surrender Kuldja, and that she regards the recent Chinese successes in Central Asia with dislike, as tending to lower her own prestige, is not less clear. The retro-cession of Kuldja would undermine Russian rule in the eastern part of Central Asia, according to the St. Petersburg Journal, and it would no doubt be highly inconvenient to abandon the admirable frontier Russia holds in the Tien Shan, so long as she retains His The Russian Press evidently consider that the people of Central Asia would construe such an act as a confession of weakness, and that it would tend to revive all the old prestige that formerly belonged to China. The Russian authorities in Central Asia are loth to surrender Kuldja for the same reasons, as well as for the fact that Kuldja has become in their hands a highly prosperous and productive region. But whether the home Government will care to break its plighted word is another matter, upon which we should not like to pass an opinion. But, unless it does, Russia will scarcely be able to foil the

Chinese, who are greatly in earnest over this Central Asian question. And it should be remembered that China has at this very moment a disciplined force of close on 50,000 men in Kaahgaria and Tungaria, a force, moreover, flushed with the success of two campaigns, and armed with breech-loading rifles and Krupp's artillery. The Russians would probably be able to overthrow this " ever victorious " army if it came to the last appeal ; but it would require an effort, and that is exactly what Russia is unable at the present moment to make in Central Asia. In all pro' ability moderation will sway the counsels on both sides, and Borne compromise will be suggested by which each will secure its object or its equivalent as well as its honor.