No. 323.
Mr. Halderman to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
June 14, 1884. (Received September 6.)
Sir: This port is Russia’s principal military and naval station on the Pacific. It has a population of 10,000 and a prospect of healthy growth. It is connected with Nagasaki, Japan, 800 miles distant, via the Corean ports Fusan and Yuen-San, by monthly steam service. During four months of the year navigation is suspended by the rigors of winter. On the west it has uninterrupted connection with St. Petersburg by post-route and telegraph.
The situation is pleasing, and the harbor safe and capacious. It would seem easy of defense.
An iron floating dry-dock, with capacity for the largest vessels, is under contract and will soon be completed.
On the adjacent lands cereals and vegetables thrive. It is not at all improbable that Siberia may yet supply Asia with bread.
Large well-stocked mercantile establishments and godowns may be [Page 457] seen, owned or controlled by Germans who buy in Hamburg and ship direct by steamer through the Suez Canal.
Here, as elsewhere in the East, Chinamen are the workers, the day laborers, brick-makers, butchers, bakers, shopkeepers, &c. A few Coreans are employed in the brick-yards. Russians, Siberians, and Cossacks are the soldiers, sailors, and drosky drivers.
Meat is the staple article of food. Good beef is abundant. People of all conditions affect caviar and vodka. Ladies smoke cigarettes at the dinner table, and dress with the elegance of their sisters in Washington or Paris.
Though the trees are in leaf, and the hillsides are carpeted with green, the mercury marks 40° Fahrenheit, while men and women wear winter clothing, wraps, and furs. Later in the season 80° of heat may be reached.
The Western powers are not represented by consuls; Japan alone having a commercial agent. I was told that such representation was not desired, inasmuch as this is a Government station, and not an open free port soliciting trade with the outside world. No one may venture hither without a passport; a strict surveillance is maintained. The Corean frontier is 80 miles distant on the south. Saghalien, an island ceded by Japan, containing the Russian convict settlements, is hard by.
I have exchanged calls with the governor. At one of our interviews I took occasion to observe that the considerate treatment awarded to the heroes, lost and living, of the ill-fated Jeannette, by himself and other Russian officials had made more enduring the warm friendship entertained by my Government and people for his own. On account of ill health I have been compelled to decline proffered courtesies.
En route to Vladivostock I visited Fusan and Yuensan (Gensan) on the east coast of Corea. From what I saw and learned of the hermit kingdom” I could hardly recommend Americans to quit their own country and go thither.
* * * * * * *
I have, &c.,