Of Dalny even the expenditure of much government money has been unable to make a success. The site was ill chosen; the place has no trade, serves no real purpose, and by the Russians was termed “Lishni,” the “unwanted.” Dalny is dead. The Eastern Chinese Railway, of which Port Arthur was the military and Dalny the commercial terminus, will continue to serve both places so long as there is any traffic, and local traffic there always will be. It may increase, but it will do so slowly unless nursed by some such artificial methods as Russia employed. The Eastern Chinese Railway will be joined to the Imperial Chinese Railways by a line of about forty miles over a flat country between Mukden and Hsinmintun. That is the direction most of the trans-continental and local traffic will take; it will give through railway communication between Europe and Peking. The railway between Port Arthur and Harbin may be acquired directly from Russia by the Chinese Government. It is much more likely to be taken by the Japanese and sold to either the Chinese Railways Administration, or to a syndicate of British and American capitalists. The line runs through a rich country, and already there is sufficient traffic obtainable to pay not only the expenses of working but a fair interest on the actual heavy cost of construction. In fact, the Harbin-Dalny section is the most profitable of all the Siberian railways and its prospects are excellent. Should it be acquired either by the Chinese, or by a foreign syndicate, it will be doubtless converted to the standard gauge of the Chinese railways, and be worked by a similar staff. Already the Japanese are reducing the gauge over the sections in their possession.