not have faced the ill-will of Japan, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States—­all more or less concerned at her rapid strides southward; and it is at least highly probable that she bought off Germany by waiving her own claims to Kiao-chau, provided that she gained an ideal terminus for her Siberian line, and a great naval and military stronghold.  It is also worth noting that the first German troops were landed at Kiao-chau on November 17, 1897, while three Russian warships steamed into Port Arthur on December 18; and that the German “lease” was signed at Pekin on March 5, 1898; while that accorded to Russia bears date March 27[493].

[Footnote 493:  Asakawa, p. 110, note.]

If we accept the naive suggestion of the Russian author, “Vladimir,” the occupation of Kiao-chau by Germany “forced” Russia “to claim some equivalent compensation.”  Or possibly the cession of Port Arthur was another of the items in Li Hung Chang’s bargain with Russia.  In any case, the Russian warships entered Port Arthur, at first as if for a temporary stay; when two British warships repaired thither the Czar’s Government requested them to leave—­a request with which the Salisbury Cabinet complied in an inexplicably craven manner (January 1898).  Rather more pressure was needed on the somnolent mandarins of Pekin; but, under the threat of war with Russia if the lease of the Liao-tung Peninsula were not granted by March 27, it was signed on that day.  She thereby gained control of that peninsula for twenty-five years, a period which might be extended “by mutual agreement.”  The control of all the land forces was vested in a Russian official; and China undertook not to quarter troops to the north without the consent of the Czar.  Port Arthur was reserved to the use of Russian and Chinese ships of war; and Russia gained the right to erect fortifications.

The British Government, which had hitherto sought to uphold the integrity of China, thereupon sought to “save its face” by leasing Wei-hai-wei (July 1).  An excuse for the weakness of the Cabinet in Chinese affairs has been put forward, namely, that the issue of the Sudan campaign was still in doubt, and that the efforts of French and Russians to reach the Upper Nile from the French Congo and Southern Abyssinia compelled Ministers to concentrate their attention on that great enterprise.  But this excuse will not bear examination.  Strength at any one point of an Empire is not increased by discreditable surrenders at other points.  No great statesman would have proceeded on such an assumption.

Obviously the balance of gain in these shabby transactions in the north of China was enormously in favour of Russia.  She now pushed on her railway southwards with all possible energy.  It soon appeared that Port Arthur could not remain an open port, and it was closed to merchant ships.  Then Talienwan was named in place of it, but under restrictions which made the place of little value to foreign merchants.  Thereafter the new port of Dalny was set apart for purposes of commerce, but the efficacy of the arrangements there has never been tested.  In the intentions of the Czar, Port Arthur was to become the Gibraltar of the Far East, while Dalny, as the commercial terminus of the trans-Siberian line, figured as the Cadiz of the new age of exploration and commerce opening out to the gaze of Russia.