Expenditures of the Russo-Japanese war / by Gotaro Ogawa.

INTRODUCTION

13

in Manchuria, the troops stationed on the Korean frontiers
crossed the Yalu River and penetrated the Korean territory,
nominally to protect the Russian timber concern; and in
defiance of the Seoul Government's protest, the soldiers were
sent in May to the seat of the concern, Yanganpo. These
men began building in June as if they meant to stay in the
place permanently, while a telegraphic communication was
set up under the river bed of the Yalu to connect Yanganpo
with Antunghsien where the Russian artillery was stationed.
Realizing the futility of protests, the Korean Government
acceded, in July, to the Russian demand for the lease of
Yanganpo, and a contract was signed between the Seoul
authorities and the timber company. This contract was later
abrogated on a Japanese protest to Korea, but Russia disregarded the course of this negotiation and went on completing military works at Yanganpo, and in October it was discovered that she was constructing fortifications there. Japan,
Great Britain and America repeatedly warned Korea of the
danger, and demanded that Russia open Wiju and Yanganpo
to foreign trade.
While Russia thus occupied the whole of Manchuriaand commenced operations to possess herself of the Korean territory,
Japan, who had been out-marshaled in diplomacy for nearly
ten years, quietly succeeded in augmenting her armaments.
A collision of Japan and Russia now became well-nigh unavoidable. Public opinion in Japan unanimously and vigorously
demanded war. The Tokyo Government, which had been
negotiating with Russia about Manchuria and Korea, presented a draft of the conditions that were to be the bases of a
Russo-Japanese convention. Roughly speaking, the fundamental thesis of this proposition was that, in order to clearly
delimit the respective interests of the two countries which
then threatened to clash with each other, Korea should be
recognized as within Japan's sphere of interest, and Manchuria
as within Russia's. But the two powers disagreed at the outset on the basic conditions and the place of conference, Japan
insisting upon discussing her proposition at Petrograd, while