It cannot be to the interest of
nations which are such large customers of each other to go to war
about a few miles of Afguhan frontier. The London _Chamber of Commerce
Journal_, ably edited by Mr. Kenric B. Murray, Secretary to the Chamber,
has in its May number an article upon this subject well deserving of
perusal. It points out that in case of war most of the British export
trade to Russia would go through Germany, and might possibly never again
return under British control. In spite of Russian protective duties,
this trade has been well maintained, even while the British import
of Russian commodities, wheat, flax, hemp, tallow, and timber, was
declining 40 per cent. from 1883 to 1884. The St. Petersburg Maritime
Canal will evidently give much improved facilities to the direct export
of English goods to Russia. Without reference to our own manufactures,
it should be observed that the Russian cotton mills, including those of
Poland, consume yearly 264 million pounds of cotton, most of which comes
through England. The importation of English coal to Russia has afforded
a noteworthy instance of the disadvantage hitherto occasioned by the
want of direct navigation to St.
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