On the 28th of October, 1896, the "North China Daily News," the leading English newspaper in China, published what purports to be, and is believed to be, the text of a secret treaty, concluded in the previous year, between Russia and China, under which the former is extending her Trans-Siberian railway system through Manchuria, and is practically in possession of that province. The preamble of the treaty declares that the Emperor of China has specially appointed the princes and great officers of the Crown composing the Imperial Chinese Ministry of War to confer with the Russian Minister concerning the connecting of the railway system of the Three Eastern Provinces with the Trans-Siberian Railway, "with the object of facilitating the transport of goods between the two empires and strengthening the frontier defences and sea coasts. And, furthermore, to agree upon certain special privileges to be conceded by China to Russia as a response to the loyal aid given by Russia in the retrocession of Liaotung and its dependencies." The articles of the convention relating to the route of the railway are as follows: "I. Owing to the fact that the Russian Great Siberian Railway is on the point of completion, China consents to allow Russia to prolong her railway into Chinese territories (a) from the Russian port of Vladivostok into the Chinese city of Hunch'un, in the province of Kirin, from thence north-westwards to the provincial capital of Kirin, and (b) from a railway station of some city in Siberia to the Chinese town of Aiyun, in Heilungchiang province, from thence southwestwards to the provincial capital of Tsitsihar, and from thence to the town of Petunê, in Kirin province, and from thence south-eastwards to the provincial capital of Kirin. "II. All railways built by Russia into the Chinese provinces of Heilungchiang and Kirin shall be built at the sole expense of Russia, and the regulations and building thereof shall be solely on the Russian system, with which China has nothing to do, and the entire control shall be in the hands of Russia for the space of thirty years. At the end of the said period China shall be allowed to prepare the necessary funds wherewith, after proper estimation of the value of the said railways, she shall redeem them, the rolling stock, machine shops, and buildings connected therewith. But as to how China will at that date redeem these railways shall be left for future consideration.