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

INTRODUCTION

7

Kiaochow Bay through the German occupation of the place,
demanded of the Chinese Government the lease of Port Arthur
and Dalny for shielding China, as she claimed, from foreign
invasion. Although not opposed to the Russian lease of
these two ports, Great Britain insisted that Russia should
open them for international commerce. Russia, of course,
intended to use the ports exclusively for her military purposes,
so she silenced the British opposition in a diplomatic way,
and replied to the Japanese demand for explanation in the
matter that it was only a temporary seizure until the Moscovite Government should acquire a port in Shantung.
The treaty in question was signed on March 27, I898, by
which Russia obtained the rights (I) to lease Port Arthur and
Dalny for 25 years, the whole of the former and one harbor
of the latter to be used exclusively for military purposes,
while the rest of Dalny was opened to international commerce;
(2) to set up military works in these places, and (3) to construct a branch railway from a certain point on the Chinese
Eastern Railway to the leased ports, and another connecting
the ports with a suitable spot in the Liaotung peninsula.
In possession of a long-desired ice-free port at last, Russia was
enabled to make warlike preparations there, to facilitate the
connection of her territory and leased outport through ownership of all the trunk lines of the trans-Manchurian Railway,
and to get direct access to the Pacific Ocean through the
waters in the west of Korea. This was indeed a second master stroke in the Russian policy of Manchurian occupation
and East Asian domination. In the midst of these circumstances Japan merely obtained from China, besides some
minor advantages, the assurance of not ceding any part of
Fukien Province opposite Formosa to any power, thus
offsetting the power of Russia and other European nations
in the Far East. Russia furthermore undertook the loan for
the Peking-Hankow Railway, upon which Great Britain tried
a counter move by promising the fund for a new railway
between Shanhaikuan and Shinmintun. Both countries
agreed, however, that these arrangements encroached upon