“Next is the Russo-Asiatic empire that comprises Russia in Europe and all Asia except Arabia. It is styled the ‘Russasia.’ The government is a limited monarchy, very much like that of Great Britain in your day. The Russians in Europe and Siberia are represented by a parliament, which is the supreme legislative authority for the entire empire. The Asiatic States are governed by governors appointed by the emperor at St. Petersburg and most of them have local legislatures that regulate their local affairs. All China and parts of India, Persia and Tartary, and Afghanistan are divided into convenient sized states possessing this local autonomy. All of this territory is being developed by the combined enterprise of the Russians and the Chinese, the latter scarcely second to the former. Mongolia and Mantchooria have been supplied with railroads and settled by both Chinese and Russians. The Chinese have also migrated in great numbers into Tartary and settled up what used to be the western end of the Chinese empire. They have even settled in great numbers in Russia and in western Asia. A great change came over the Chinese after their war with Japan in 1894-5. They perceived that they were beaten by western methods, and they suddenly conceived a respect for the ways of the foreign devils as extreme as their contempt for them had been before. They had always been on good terms with the Russians while they disliked the English, French and Americans. Having determined to adopt western ways, they selected the Russians for their instructors and welcomed their capital and enterprise in the introduction of railways, opening mines, improving their water ways, introducing western machinery and manufactures. When the Russians in order to protect their interests began a military occupation of the country, they were not opposed, but rather welcomed by the progressive party. The Chinese were not a military people, and were really in need of a coalition that would enable them to resist the aggressions of the nations of western Europe, and the Japanese. The remodeling of Chinese institutions under the tutelage of the Russians advanced rapidly. Probably the most radical and important innovation was the introduction of the Russian alphabet and the phonetic spelling of the Chinese language by its use. This enabled the Chinese youth to learn their own language much more easily, and it led directly to the study of the Russian which became very necessary to a large extent, on account of the intimate intercourse between the two people, and on account of the new ideas, processes and things, the names of which were Russian without Chinese equivalents. This finally led to the universal use of Russian by the educated Chinese.