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Page 6
The promoters of the scheme look for great assistance from England, and
have approached Lord Salisbury in the hope of gaining his friendship.
Europe would of course have a great deal to say about the establishment
of an enlightened and progressive race on the borders of the Red Sea,
and the new nation could not be established without the consent of the
Powers.
* * * * *
Russia is about building a new canal, which, when finished, will be one
of the greatest works ever undertaken.
It is to connect the Baltic Sea with the Black Sea, and is to be one
thousand miles in length.
It is to start from Riga on the Baltic, and run to Kherson at the mouth
of the Dneiper River, where that river empties itself into the Black
Sea.
The advantages of this canal will be very great.
At the present time a vessel voyaging from the Baltic to the Black Sea
has to go all round Europe before it reaches its destination. Take your
map and follow out the course a ship must take. It must skirt Denmark
and pass into the North Sea, then go through the Straits of Dover, down
the coast of France, across the Bay of Biscay, and down the coast of
Portugal until the Straits of Gibraltar are reached. Here the vessel
must pass into the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, and follow it along
through the Grecian Archipelago, through the Dardanelles into the Sea of
Marmora, and passing through the Bosporus, it at last finds itself in
the Black Sea.
The time required to make such a long voyage is a great loss to
merchants, and the vessel has to pass through so many narrow straits and
past so many strategic points that the voyage could hardly be undertaken
if Russia were at war with any foreign nation.
The canal is to be 213 feet wide at the surface, 115 feet at the base,
and to have a depth of 27 feet.
It should, therefore, be a very fine canal.
Germany and the United States are both very pleased about this great
work, for both nations see in it an opportunity to sell their iron and
steel manufactures.
The Czar of Russia has issued an order that there is to be no more
exiling to Siberia except for certain very serious crimes.
Instead, large prisons are to be built in Central Russia for the
political criminals. The change is to go into effect in one year's time,
when it is supposed that the new prisons will be in readiness.
It seems almost too good to be true that the terrors of Siberian exile
are to be abolished. To most of the unfortunate prisoners who were
interviewed by Mr. George Kennan when he visited the Siberian convict
settlements, even the horrors of the exile were as nothing compared to
the awful journey on foot across the desolate steppes of Russia.
All this will soon be at an end, and the nearness of the prisons to
civilization will perhaps remove some of the abuses and ill-treatment of
the prisoners now practised in the far-away Siberian prisons.
If the young Czar Nicholas continues his kindly and humane methods of
government it is likely that he will soon need very few political
prisons.
He has shown much kindness and clemency to his people since he came to
the throne, and there is little doubt that his subjects will soon learn
to love him and trust him in return.
* * * * *
The relations between the Transvaal and England are again being brought
prominently before the world.
Early in the spring, when it was rumored that Germany was taking too
friendly an interest in the affairs of the Transvaal, Mr. Chamberlain,
the Colonial Secretary of England, sent a very stormy letter to the
Boers, saying that England insisted that the Transvaal should not make
any foreign alliances without her consent, and that the treaty between
the Transvaal and Great Britain, which is known as the "London Treaty,"
must be very closely observed.
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