Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 51066-h.htm or 51066-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/51066/pg51066-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51066/51066-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
https://archive.org/details/japanrussiawaril00tyle
Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
[Illustration: A SILENCED GUN IN PORT ARTHUR.]
THE JAPAN-RUSSIA WAR
An Illustrated History of the War in the Far East
The Greatest Conflict of Modern Times
by
SYDNEY TYLER
War Correspondent and Author of
"The Spanish War," "The War in South Africa," Etc., Etc.
Illustrated by Photographs and Drawings Made by Eye-Witnesses
P. W. Ziegler Co.
Philadelphia
Copyright, 1905,
by
Sydney Tyler
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION.
The Japan-Russia War goes into history as the greatest military
struggle the world has known. Its story, therefore, rivals in interest
those of the great wars of the past which have been an unceasing
inspiration in every field of art and literature. The political
machinations of great and little kings, of famed prime ministers, of
peoples and states have attracted attention in more or less limited
circles, but the world's wars have appealed to every class and rank.
The world's vast army of readers have never wearied of the classic
stories of feats of arms by men and armies told of the dawning days of
world history; the tales of later map-making struggles of Asia, of
Europe, of America, have never grown old or dull. So in the Orient of
to-day. The great political battles which have centred about China and
Japan for the last half century have interested the few. But to-day the
attention of the world is centred on the lands bordering the Pacific,
because a war has waged; because the whole human family loves the
stories of valorous deeds, of military achievement, of the
history-making that is done with the sword.
The purpose of this volume is to bring American readers face to face
with the events of the struggle of such stupendous magnitude, now drawn
to a close. From battlefield to battlefield the author carries his
thrilling narrative, bringing the scenes before the mind's eye as only
one could do who stood within sound of the roaring guns, within sight
of the onrush of resistless battalions, elbow to elbow with Japan's
brilliant history makers. From the opening of the struggle to its close
there was never a moment when stupendous events were not either in the
process of making or so imminent that the civilized world held its
breath. A single year's campaign in Manchuria and around famed Port
Arthur furnish three land battles, greater in the number engaged in the
awful cost of life, in the period of duration, than is presented by all
of the pages of history. The siege of Port Arthur has no duplicate
among all recorded military achievements. The opening of the second
year of the war added a battle, that at Mukden, so vast, so brilliant
from the standpoint of the victors, so disastrous from the standpoint
of the defeated, that it has been accorded by masters of strategy a
niche by itself in the chronicles of war. The author saw this wonderful
panorama of events unfolded. His story bristles with dramatic touches,
flashes of enlightening description that bring the scene home to the
reader with a vividness that thrills.
American readers have a more immediate interest in the struggle than
the universal love of the stories of battle. With Japan victor over
Russia, with the great Muscovite Empire deprived of a foothold on the
Pacific, Japan and America remain the only Powers there to divide the
rich spoils of Oriental commerce. Our possessions, the Philippines, are
Japan's nearest neighbors, and their proximity to Japan, their bearing
upon the Asiatic problem open the way for events of more than ordinary
importance, if not of seriousness. Already the statement has been made
that Japan covets these Islands. Will the United States, one day be
called upon to go to war in their behalf? The question is one which no
American can ignore. The nation must educate itself to decide one day,
the issue, for or against a struggle with this wonderful little Empire,
the Great Britain of Asia. The volume, therefore, in addition to its
value and interest as a chronicle of a marvelous series of bloody
battles is educational, the pioneer, blazing the way to an appreciation
of events, of possibilities for our own country which lie in the story
of Japan's overwhelming success. Will the Mikado come to believe that
having humbled and crushed what was Europe's mightiest Power, he can as
readily drive from the Pacific the American Republic?
The author in this volume has even more completely demonstrated his
genius as a chronicler of war than in any of his earlier efforts. Step
by step he followed the British in Africa and at the conclusion of that
struggle contributed to British literature a history which was
generally conceded to have been more accurate, more graphic, less
warped by prejudices than any other. Step by step he followed the
unfolding of our own Spanish war and the story of that struggle as told
by Mr. Tyler became at once the standard not only in Great Britain, but
in the several Continental countries in which it appeared. With the
priceless experience of these two wars to ably equip him, Mr. Tyler has
contributed one more narrative of a great war to military literature
and the assertion is unhesitatingly made that it will not be equalled
by any of the hosts of volumes destined to be written of this memorable
war.
Along with the author went his camera. To that fact the reader is
indebted to a series of illustrations never before attempted in the
portrayal of military campaigns. What little the author has left to the
imagination is supplied by these graphic pictures that bridge nine
thousand miles and bring the sights and almost the sounds of battle to
the reader.
In brief, this volume as a description of the succeeding struggles of
the Japan-Russia War, for accuracy, graphic qualities, detail and
literary finish; for its educational value and significance, for the
hitherto unattempted excellence of its illustration is presented to the
American public with confidence that an appreciative reception will not
possibly be denied.
THE PUBLISHERS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Causes of the War 13
CHAPTER II.
The First Blow 39
CHAPTER III.
The Korean Campaign 69
CHAPTER IV.
Naval Operations 101
CHAPTER V.
Sinking of the "Petropavlovsk" 133
CHAPTER VI.
Battle of the Yalu 167
CHAPTER VII.
Cutting off Port Arthur 197
CHAPTER VIII.
The Assault that Failed 225
CHAPTER IX.
Battle of Liaoyang 257
CHAPTER X.
Naval Battle off Port Arthur 289
CHAPTER XI.
Battle of the Sha-ho 317
CHAPTER XII.
The North Sea Outrage 347
CHAPTER XIII.
Surrender of Port Arthur 379
CHAPTER XIV.
The First Year of the War 409
CHAPTER XV.
After Port Arthur 430
CHAPTER XVI.
In Winter Quarters 453
CHAPTER XVII.
The Battle of Mukden 467
CHAPTER XVIII.
Retreat towards Harbin 497
CHAPTER XIX.
The Battle of the Japan Sea 523
CHAPTER XX.
The Treaty of Peace 557
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
A Silenced Gun at Port Arthur Frontispiece
Japanese Infantry Attacking a Chinese Position 21
Map Showing the Area Affected by the Dispute 25
The Japanese at Port Arthur 27
Battle of the Yalu--Sinking of the Chih-yuen 38
Japanese and Russian Admirals 48
Japanese Generals 57
Russian Generals 68
The Harbor of Port Arthur 71
Russian Fleet Trying to Leave Port Arthur 77
Russian and Japanese Destroyers at Close Quarters 88
The Czar 97
The Mikado 97
Raid by the Vladivostock Fleet 107
The Tokio Military Hospital--Officers Quarters 118
Sketch Plan of Port Arthur's Main Fortifications 121
Funeral Procession of a Japanese Officer in Yokohama 125
A Skirmish Between Japanese and Russian Cavalry 129
Desolation in Manchuria 140
Blowing up of the Petropavlovsk 145
Arrival of a Dispatch for General Kuropatkin 152
Russian Concentration on the Yalu 161
Map Showing the Actions on the Yalu, April 29th-May 1st 169
Hauling a Japanese Howitzer into Position under Fire 171
Russians Collecting Wounded on the Night after the Battle 182
A Last Gallant Stand of Russian Gunners 191
After Three Months 199
In the Russian Trenches 202
A Desperate Encounter at Port Arthur 211
General Stoessel Exhorting his Troops in the Defence of
Port Arthur 222
Outside Port Arthur 227
A Skirmish on the Manchurian Railway 234
Russians Charging Japanese Trenches at Port Arthur 243
After Four Months 247
Russian Priest in the Trenches with General Stackelberg's
Army 250
General Nogi before Port Arthur 257
After Five Months 261
Food for the Japanese Army 265
Map Showing Territory Adjacent to Liaoyang 269
After Six Months 273
Death of Count Keller at Yang-Ze-Ling Pass 275
The Six Days' Action Around Liaoyang, Aug. 29-Sept. 3d 281
Map Showing Route of March and Principal Actions of the
Four Japanese Armies, Feb. 7th-Sept. 4th 283
Japanese Assault on a Russian Position at Liaoyang 286
Russians Recapturing their Lost Guns at Liaoyang 295
On the Deck of the "Rurik" 307
After Seven Months 313
Capture of the "Reshitelni" at Chifu 316
Japanese Outpost Relieving Guard near the Sha-ho 325
Japanese Scaling Fort at Port Arthur 335
The Remnant of a Regiment After the Battle of the Sha-ho 347
Huge Siege Guns before Port Arthur 355
Thirsty Japanese Troops Crossing the Sha-ho 366
Fight in Street of Lin-Shin-Pu, Battle of Sha-ke River 375
Port Arthur and the Surrounding Forts 381
Hauling Guns Up a Captured Hill at Port Arthur 386
Japanese Eleven-Inch Mortar before Port Arthur 396
The Evacuation of Port Arthur 405
After Twelve Months 408
Cossacks in Retreat After a Reconnaissance Near Liaoyang 415
The Garrison of Port Arthur--Leaving the Fortress 426
The Bamboo Gun at Port Arthur 435
On the Slopes of Ojikeishan before Port Arthur 446
A Night Attack on a Russian Position 455
Japanese Troops Caught in Barbed Wire Entanglement 466
Map of the Battle of Mukden 469
Russian Retreat in Manchuria 475
Russian Suffering after the Battle of Mukden 486
On Board a Japanese Battle ship during the Battle of the
Japan Sea 496
The Russian Fleet in the Battle of the Japan Sea 505
The Retreat from Mukden 519
Peace Envoys in Session at Portsmouth 556
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Japan-Russia War
CHAPTER I.
Two Irreconcilable Destinies--Progress v.
Stagnation--Europe's Danger--Insatiable Russia--A Warm
Water Port--Japan's Warlike Progress--The Chino-Japanese
War--Russia's "Honor"--M. Pavloff--Russia in China--The
Russo-Chinese Bank--The Mailed Fist--Russian
"Leases"--Benevolent Professions--Wei-Hai-Wei--Niuchwang
Railway--Pavloff in Korea--Russia and
Manchuria--Russo-Chinese Treaty--Anglo-Japanese
Alliance--Russians in Korea--Japanese Protests--Russia's
Discourtesy.
Never since the great Napoleonic wars which convulsed Europe a century
ago has the world witnessed an appeal to arms so momentous in its
issues and so tremendous in its possibilities as that which has just
been tried between Russia and Japan in the Far East. The great
internecine struggle in the United States in the middle of the last
century, the disastrous duel between France and Germany which followed,
and England's recently-concluded campaign in South Africa, have each,
indeed, left a deep mark upon history. But while their import was at
most Continental, if not local, the conflict between Japan and Russia
is fraught with consequences which must inevitably be world-wide in
scope. There is no civilized Power in either hemisphere whose interests
are not more or less directly concerned in the question--Who shall be
the dominant Power in the China Seas? For the whole course of the
world's development in that quarter must depend on whether the mastery
remains to the obstructive and oppressive Colossus of the North or to
the progressive and enlightened island-Empire which, like Pallas in
Pagan myth, has sprung fully armed from an ancient civilization into
the very van of modern progress. It was no mere dynastic jealousy or
racial animosity that brought about this fateful collision. It was the
inevitable antagonism of two irreconcilable destinies. "Two stars keep
not their motion in one sphere"; and the ambitions of Russia and the
aspirations of Japan cannot find room for fulfilment together. One or
the other must be crushed.
[Sidenote: Two Irreconcilable Destinies]
For Japan, the question is one of national existence. With Russia
established in Manchuria and dominating the Yellow Sea, the absorption
of Korea becomes a mere matter of time; and then the very independence
of Japan would be subject to a perpetual and intolerable menace; while
the new life which has dawned for its wonderfully gifted people would
be crushed at the outset. But if Japan is fighting for her life, Russia
is fighting for something almost as precious--the consummation of an
ambition which has been the dream and the fixed goal of her statesmen
for more than a generation. The expansion of the Russian Empire has
been steadily eastwards; and the further conquest and dominion have
spread, the more has the necessity been felt for an outlet to the
navigable seas. Unless all the labor and sacrifices of years are to be
in vain, and the great Siberian Empire is to remain a mere gigantic
_cul-de-sac_, Russia must establish herself permanently in the Gulf of
Pechili, and find in its ice-free ports that natural outlet for her
trans-continental railway which will enable the life-blood of commerce
to circulate through her torpid bulk. The struggle, therefore, was one
between two irreconcilable destinies.
[Sidenote: Progress v. Stagnation]
But if the issue was immediately of such paramount significance to the
two combatants, it was only less charged with import for all Asia,
Europe and America. The victory of Japan would incontestably give her
the predominance in the Far East, commercially as well as politically.
Not only would she be a formidable trade rival to the European nations
whose methods she has so successfully adopted, but she would be able to
influence the conditions under which that trade was carried on. The
immensely valuable and as yet imperfectly developed market of China
would be practically within her control; and European Powers would no
longer be able with impunity to seize naval bases and proclaim
exclusive spheres of influence in Chinese territory. On the other hand,
if Russia were to emerge victorious from the war, the whole of China
would become a mere vassal state, if indeed its integrity could be
preserved. Trade would be discouraged and finally extinguished by the
exclusive methods of Russian policy, and except on sufferance no other
Power could obtain a footing in the Far East. The whole future of this
vast region, therefore, hung in the balance, for the battle was between
freedom, progress and enlightenment, as represented by Japan, and
obscurantism, oppression and stagnation, as represented by Russia.
[Sidenote: Europe's Danger]
But the anxious concern of the world in this Far Eastern war was based
not only upon a calculation of material interests. Every civilized
Government had before its eyes the imminent danger of other countries
being dragged into the conflict. The situation was such that at any
moment some untoward incident might set Europe in a blaze. The specific
obligations of France to Russia under the terms of the Dual Alliance,
and of Great Britain to Japan under the Treaty of Alliance concluded in
1901, made the limitation of the struggle to the original combatants
not only difficult, but even precarious. A breach of neutrality by any
third Power would at once have compelled France to join forces with her
Russian ally, or Great Britain to come to the assistance of Japan. Such
a breach might have been merely trivial or technical, and yet
sufficient to give a hard-pressed belligerent ground for calling her
ally to her assistance. It might even have been deliberately provoked,
in the hope of retrieving disaster by extending the area of conflict;
and if the two Western Powers were once dragged into war, no statesman
would be bold enough to put a limit to the consequences. Both Germany
and the United States are profoundly interested in the Far East and in
the issue of this great struggle for predominance; and one or both of
them might at any moment have been ranged on one side or the other.
From such an Armageddon the factors which determine the balance of
power throughout the world, and therefore the development of national
destinies, could hardly have emerged without profound modification; and
the ultimate establishment of peace would have found many more
international rivalries and antagonisms resolved than those which are
immediately connected with the Far East. Lord Beaconsfield once said
that there were only two events in history--the Siege of Troy and the
French Revolution. It seems more than possible that the Russo-Japanese
war will have to be reckoned as a third supreme factor in the progress
of the world.
[Sidenote: Insatiable Russia]
The outbreak of the present war became practically inevitable as long
ago as 1895, when, on the conclusion of peace between China and Japan
the three European Powers--Russia, France and Germany--stepped in and
robbed the Mikado and his people of the fruits of their hard-earned
victory. From that time up to the present Russia has steadily, and
without ceasing, tightened her grip upon the Northern province of the
hapless Chinese Empire, and has ended by threatening the independence
of Korea, the legitimate sphere of influence of Japan, and the
indispensable buffer between herself and the insatiable and
ever-advancing Northern Power.
[Sidenote: A Warm Water Port]
It must be borne in mind that the determining consideration which led
Russia to cast longing eyes upon Manchuria--apart from that eternal
hunger for territory which is one of her strongest characteristics--was
the necessity of acquiring a warm water port as a naval base and
commercial harbor. The port of Vladivostock--which, by the way, she
acquired from China as early as 1860 by a truly Russian piece of
bluff--has proved of little use in this respect, owing to the fact that
during the winter months it is almost entirely icebound. A striking
illustration of the embarrassment such a state of things must cause was
afforded in the course of the present war by the plight into which the
Russian Cruiser Squadron stationed there fell. There can be no doubt
that the ambitions of the Czar's advisers had for years been directed
towards the acquisition of the fortress and harbor of Port Arthur
(known to the Chinese as Lu-shun-kau), which situated as it is upon the
narrow neck of land at the extreme southernmost point of the Liao-tung
Peninsula, should, if properly served by a strong and efficient naval
force, dominate the Gulf of Pechili, and prove the most powerful
strategic post in Northern China.
[Sidenote: Japan's Warlike Progress]
It is not known, of course, what path the development of Russian plans
in this respect would have followed if they had been allowed to proceed
without interruption; but, as it turned out, they were suddenly
threatened with a dangerous obstacle in the complete and unexpected
success of Japan over China and her capture of the whole of the
Liao-tung Peninsula. This short but sanguinary conflict between China
and Japan is memorable for having first revealed to the world the
amazing progress which Japan had made in her efforts to engraft and
assimilate the characteristics of Western civilization. It proved that
in less than twenty years Japan had earned for herself an established
position in the community of progressive nations. The war also made it
possible for the first time to estimate the influence and effect in
warlike operations of the tremendous engines of destruction with which
modern science has equipped the fleets and armies of to-day. The navy
of Japan had been organized on the latest model, and her officers had
been trained in British schools; and though China's equipment was not
to be compared with that of her antagonist, she possessed several
powerful armorclads of the latest type, officered and engineered by
experienced Europeans.
[Sidenote: The Chino-Japanese War]
The salient features of the war were, at sea, the battles of the Yalu
River and of Wei-hai-Wei; and on land, the rout of the Chinese at
Ping-Yang, the passage of the Yalu and storming of Port Arthur. The
first of these in order of time was the battle of Ping-Yang, a town
situated near the north-west coast of Korea. Here the Chinese troops
under General Tso attempted to prevent the advance of the Japanese
towards the Yalu. By a series of skilful movements carried out on
September 15th and 16th, 1894, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief, Marshal
Yamagata, completely surrounded the Chinese and defeated them with
great slaughter, their General himself falling dead upon the field. On
the next day the Chinese fleet stationed at the mouth of the Yalu,
which had proved entirely ineffective in preventing the landing of the
enemy's forces upon Korea, gave battle to the Japanese. The ships of
the latter Power were mainly cruisers, but the extraordinary skill with
which they were manoeuvred and the rapidity of their fire completely
outweighed the advantage possessed by the Chinese Admiral in
battleships. He sustained a crushing defeat, and eight of his best
vessels were destroyed. In the meanwhile Marshal Yamagata continued his
march to the North, and after a bloody but indecisive conflict near
Wiju on October 22nd he succeeded in crossing the Yalu River and
driving his antagonists in rout before him. The Japanese now proceeded
to overrun Manchuria and the Liao-tung Peninsula, capturing all the
principal positions one after the other with unvarying success. A great
army under Marshal Oyama invested Port Arthur in November, and on the
20th and 21st he took that powerful fortress by storm, the defenders
being massacred to a man. The final and decisive act of the war was the
bombardment of Wei-hai-Wei and the island fortress of Leu-Kung-tan by
the combined naval and military forces of Admiral Ito and Marshal
Oyama. The operations lasted from January 30th, 1895, till February
12th, when, unable to hold out any longer against the terrific assault,
Admiral Ting, the Chinese Commander, surrendered his fleet and the
forts under honors of war. A closing touch of tragedy was the suicide
of Ting and his principal officers, unable to bear the shame of their
defeat. On March 19th negotiations for peace were opened at
Shimonoseki, and the final treaty was signed on April 17th. The Treaty
of Shimonoseki gave Japan unqualified possession of that Peninsula and
also, of course, of Port Arthur--a very moderate territorial prize,
considering the absolute character of her victory over China, and the
sacrifices she had made to obtain it. But Russian susceptibilities were
alarmed, and the Government of St. Petersburg decided upon a drastic
step to avert the calamity which threatened to render its ambitions
futile. Gaining the support of both Germany and France, it compelled
Japan, by threats of force which that Power could not resist, to retire
from Port Arthur and the Liao-tung Peninsula, and to restore the
territory to China. The reason alleged for this high-handed action was
the specious plea that the presence of the Japanese on the Asiatic
mainland would endanger the independence of China and Korea, and would
be a constant menace to the peace of the Far East. Naturally enough the
indignation of Japan was intense, but defiance of three such powerful
antagonists was impossible for her at that moment, isolated as she was
and exhausted by the exertions of a great war. Great Britain was asked
by the other three Powers to act jointly with them in this matter, but
she refused to assist in depriving the gallant Island people of their
rightful spoils of victory. The attitude of Lord Rosebery's Government
on this occasion, although it gave no positive aid to Japan,
undoubtedly led to a better understanding between the two countries,
and paved the way ultimately to the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance,
which, by rescuing Japan from her position of isolation, enabled her to
enter effectively into the momentous and complicated game which the
European diplomatists were playing, with varying fortunes, at Peking.
[Sidenote: Russia's "Honor"]
Meanwhile, however, Japanese aspirations received a check from which
they were to take several years to recover. The statesmen of the Mikado
were even unable to obtain a pledge from China that the territories
yielded back to her by Japan would never be alienated to a third Power.
Russia's delicate sense of honor, it appeared, revolted against the
imputation implied, and therefore China must give no pledge. On the
other hand, Russia would be so generous as to give an assurance on her
own account that she had no designs upon Manchuria. Forced to content
herself with the cold comfort of this empty and meaningless
declaration, and baffled upon all essential points, Japan sullenly
withdrew her troops from the mainland and settled down to nurse her
just wrath, and prepare for the inevitable day of reckoning.
[Illustration: JAPANESE INFANTRY ATTACKING A CHINESE POSITION.]
[Sidenote: M. Pavloff]
The centre of interest was now shifted to Peking, where began that
amazing scramble among the European Powers for commercial, and
especially for railway, concessions in China, which, by unmasking the
ambitions of some countries, and revealing the community of interests
of others, has led ultimately to important modifications of
international policy, and to a re-arrangement of alliances. The
complexity of the game, the swiftness of the moves, and the ignorance
of the average man, not only of the issues involved, but even of the
main geographical and economic features of the immense country which
was the object of the struggle--all contrived to puzzle the mind and to
darken the understanding; but a vague feeling, only too clearly
justified by the events, arose in this country that England and America
were not getting the best of the conflict, and that Russia and Germany
were making all the running. In truth, there is no doubt that the
skill, or perhaps, to speak more correctly, the duplicity, of the
Russian diplomatists both in Peking and in St. Petersburg left their
competitors completely behind. Foremost among them there emerges at
this time the sinister figure of M. Pavloff, the Minister of the Czar
at the Chinese Court. The tortuous diplomacy of the Muscovite has
produced no more characteristic tool. M. Pavloff has been the stormy
petrel of the Far East. Intrepid, resourceful to a degree, unscrupulous
beyond the average, he is ever in the forefront of the diplomatic
battle line. His appearance in any part of the field is the signal for
new combinations, fresh aggressions, the stirring up of bad blood
between nations, and the unsettlement of apparently settled questions.
A man whose god is the Czar; a man with whom the expansion of the
Empire of the Little White Father is an ideal cherished with almost
religious fervor; a man who indeed in all probability honestly regards
the extension of the Russian autocracy over the world as essential to
the due progress of higher civilization--he is thoroughly typical of
the class of agents whose devoted services Russia has always managed to
secure for the spread of her Empire and the gradual but steady
absorption of fresh territory all over Asia, whether in China, Persia,
Turkestan or Tibet.
[Sidenote: Russia in China]
Such was the instrument possessed by the Government of the Czar at the
Court of Peking, and he was not likely to neglect the unique
opportunity which lay ready to his hand. By her action in restoring
Port Arthur to the nerveless grasp of China, Russia naturally assumed
the character of a powerful friend whose smile was to be courted and
whose frown was to be proportionately dreaded. What more natural, in
the circumstances, than that the Emperor should grant to the subjects
of his brother and ally, the Czar, peculiar commercial privileges in
the country which had been so generously rescued from the grip of Japan
and restored to the Empire of the King of Heaven?
[Illustration: MAP OF THE AREA AFFECTED BY THE WAR.]
[Sidenote: The Russo-Chinese Bank]
The first result of M. Pavloff's policy of disinterested friendship
became manifest in 1896, when the Chinese Government concluded an
agreement with the Russo-Chinese Bank, providing for the formation of a
company to be styled the Eastern Chinese Railway Company, the ownership
of which was to be vested solely in Russian and Chinese subjects and
which was to construct and work a railway within the confines of China,
from one of the points on the western borders of the province of
Heh-Lung-Kiang to one of the points on the eastern borders of the
province of Kirin; and to the connection of this railway with those
branches which the Imperial Russian Government would construct to the
Chinese frontier from Trans-Baikalia and the Southern Ussuri lines. The
institution, which went by the plain, solid, commercial name of the
Russo-Chinese Bank, was, of course, merely a sort of Far Eastern annex
of the Finance Bureau of M. de Witte, and the line thus modestly
announced was the nucleus of the great railway which has since played
such a large part in consolidating the Russian dominion over Manchuria.
At the outset it was pretended that the line was to be merely a short
cut to Vladivostock, but the true ambitions at the bottom of the scheme
became apparent when Russian engineers began to pour into the country
followed by squadrons of Cossacks, nominally for the protection of the
new railway, but really in pursuance of Russia's invariable policy of
impressing the natives with a due sense of her enormous military
strength.
[Sidenote: The Mailed Fist]
The construction of the line, however, had not proceeded very far when,
in 1897, an event occurred which gave the Czar's Government the chance
for which they had long been anxiously looking. The massacre of some
German missionaries led to swift and stern reprisals on the part of the
Kaiser. The port of Kiao-Chau, in the province of Shantung, was seized
until reparation was made for the outrage committed upon the majesty of
the German Empire, and to placate the offended "mailed fist," the
feeble Government of China were compelled to hand over this important
position to Germany as a permanent possession, although, by a
characteristic euphemism of diplomacy, the transaction was conveniently
styled a "lease." Russia's opportunity was now too good to be
neglected. Emboldened by the example of Germany, she demanded--for that
is what her so-called "request" amounted to in reality--permission from
the Chinese Government to winter her fleet at Port Arthur. Perhaps it
may be imputed to her for righteousness that, unscrupulous as she is,
she has never found it necessary to employ the missionaries of Christ
as instruments of aggression; at all events on this occasion she had no
such excuse at hand. The helpless Chinese assented, of course, to her
request; but now Great Britain, awake at last to the dangers which
threatened her Treaty rights, endeavored to intervene. Strong
representations were made by the English Minister to the
Tsung-lai-yamen as to the necessity for turning the port of
Ta-lien-wan--which lies immediately adjacent to Port Arthur--into a
Treaty port; that is to say, throwing it open to the trade of the world
on the same terms as obtain at Shanghai, Canton, Hankau, and other
ports of China at which the policy of the Open Door prevails.
[Illustration: THE JAPANESE AT PORT ARTHUR.]
[Sidenote: Russian Leases]
English statesmen, however, were no match for the wily Russians, who
had the ear of the Chinese mandarins. The Government of the Czar
successfully opposed the suggestion, and backed up its representations
at Peking by significant display of force, for a considerable fleet of
men-of-war arrived at Port Arthur and Ta-lien-wan in the spring of 1898
and practically took possession. Then, by a mingled process of
terrorism and corruption, the Chinese Government were induced to grant
the Czar a "lease" of the two harbors on the same terms as those on
which Germany had been granted possession of Kiao-Chau, and, equally
important, to permit the extension of the line of the Eastern Chinese
Railway Company to Port Arthur. Thus came into being the Manchurian
Railway, the construction of which was pushed on with feverish activity.
[Sidenote: Benevolent Professions]
The first step towards the complete acquisition and control of
Manchuria had now been successfully accomplished, and English diplomacy
sought in vain to wrest from Russia the advantage she had thus
skilfully acquired. Of course Russia was prolific of "assurances" as
she always has been in similar circumstances. The Government of the
Czar solemnly declared, for the satisfaction of any confiding person
who was willing to believe it, that it had "no intention of infringing
the rights and privileges guaranteed by existing treaties between China
and foreign countries," and that the last thing it contemplated was
interference with Chinese sovereignty over the province of Manchuria.
The sincerity of these benevolent professions was to be judged by the
fact that, having once secured a grip of Port Arthur, Russia hastened
to convert it into a fortified post of great strength and magnitude,
and closed it absolutely against the commerce of the world; and that,
while on the one hand she so far met the anxious representations of the
British Government as to constitute Ta-lien-wan a free port in name, on
the other hand she deprived the concession of all real meaning by an
irritating system of passports and administrative restrictions upon
trade.
[Sidenote: Wei-hai-Wei]
Great Britain attempted to neutralize the advantage her rival had
gained in the Gulf of Pechili by securing a port on her own account,
and, with the support of Japan, she induced the Chinese Government to
enter into an agreement for the acquisition "on lease" of Wei-hai-Wei,
a harbor situated on the southern shore of the Gulf and opposite to
Port Arthur. It was imagined at the time that the port could be turned
into a powerful naval base, but the naval and military surveys
afterwards taken showed that it was of little use for strategic
purposes, and it has consequently sunk into the position of a health
station for the English China Squadron.
[Sidenote: Niuchwang Railway]
In the meantime Russia steadily increased her hold upon Manchuria, and
large bodies of troops continued to be poured into the country. Her
position had now become so strong in the counsels of the Chinese Court
that in July, 1898, she openly opposed the concession, which British
capitalists were seeking, of an extension of the Northern Railways of
China to the Treaty Port of Niuchwang, which lies to the north of Port
Arthur, at the extremity of the Gulf. The importance of this extension
to British and American commerce was immense. Niuchwang is the main
outlet of the trade of Manchuria, and was at that time a busy thriving
town of about 60,000 inhabitants. Its value from the commercial point
of view may be estimated from the fact that its total trade rose from
£1,850,000 in 1881 to £7,253,650 in 1899, the year before it fell
absolutely into Russian hands. Russia's attempt to deprive her
commercial rivals of practical access by land to this valuable port
were, however, on this occasion only partially successful; the
construction of the Shan-hai-Kwan-Niuchwang Railway was finally
permitted; but the agreement was greatly modified to suit Russian views.
[Sidenote: Pavloff in Korea]
Concurrently with these events, significant developments had been
taking place in Korea, which brought Japan once more upon the stage.
For some time after the Japanese had been driven from Port Arthur,
Russia left Korea alone. She even entered into formal engagements with
Japan, recognizing that Power's peculiar commercial rights and
interests in Korea. But now M. Pavloff arrived upon the scene at Seoul.
In March, 1900, he gave the Japanese the first taste of his quality by
endeavoring to obtain a lease of the important strategic port of
Masampo, situated in the southeast of Korea, facing the Japanese coast
and dominating the straits between. At the same time he stipulated that
the Korean Government should not alienate to any other Power the island
of Kojedo, which lies just opposite to Masampo. Japan successfully
resisted this bold stroke of policy; and matters were in this position
when the Boxer rising gave Russia a supreme opportunity. Her troops in
Manchuria were attacked by the rebels, and she at once hurried in
reinforcements and seized the whole country. Resistance to her arms was
put down with relentless vigor--with a vigor, indeed, far transcending
the necessities of the case, and the Blagovestchensk massacres, in
which thousands of unarmed Chinamen were offered up as a sacrifice to
the offended majesty of Russia, will long be a stain upon the
escutcheon of the Imperial Prophet of Peace. In the drastic process of
absorption which was now adopted, the treaty port of Niuchwang was
naturally included, and the interests of other Powers there became of
very small account indeed.
[Sidenote: Russia and Manchuria]
It was evident that the Manchurian question had now assumed a more
serious form. Of course the Czar's Government was profuse in its
explanations. No permanent territorial advantage was being sought, we
were told; as soon as lasting order had been established in Manchuria,
and indispensable measures taken for the protection of the railway
Russia would not fail to recall her troops from the province; above all
"the interests of foreign Powers and of international companies at the
port of Niuchwang must remain inviolate." The restoration of lasting
order, however, appeared to be a very tedious process. More and more
troops were drafted into the province and on the naval side also
preparations were made for an imposing demonstration.
[Sidenote: Russo-Chinese Treaty]
Admiral Alexeieff, commanding the Russian fleet, though not yet
advanced to the dignity of Viceroy of the East, now took charge of the
Czar's interests, one of his first acts being to invite China to resume
the government of Manchuria "under the protection of Russia." On
November 11th, 1900, an agreement was signed at Port Arthur between the
Russian and Chinese representatives. The terms of this remarkable
document, which were promptly disclosed by the able and well-informed
correspondent of the London _Times_ at Peking, were a startling
revelation. They provided virtually for a Russian military protectorate
over Manchuria. Mukden, the ancient capital of Manchuria and the
burial-place of the Manchu dynasty, was to be the centre of control,
and a Russian political resident was to be stationed there. This city,
which now possesses a population of about 250,000, has in modern times
become a great place of trade. It is situated 110 miles to the
northeast of Niuchwang, and its position in the centre of the
Manchurian railway system renders it a place of much strategical
importance. Not only were these vast concessions made to Russia, but
the Treaty rights of other Powers at Niuchwang itself were disregarded.
Great Britain and the United States necessarily entered an urgent
protest against this singular method of preserving their interests
inviolate. But Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Minister for Foreign
Affairs, declared to our Ambassador that the Russo-Chinese Agreement
was merely a temporary arrangement.
The value of the solemn assurance of the Foreign Minister was exposed
to the world almost immediately afterwards by the invaluable
correspondent of the London _Times_, who sent to his paper the terms of
a new and more far-reaching Agreement which the Russian diplomatists
were trying to force upon the Chinese Court.
[Sidenote: Anglo-Japanese Alliance]
The position of affairs was now profoundly altered by the conclusion of
the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. This important Treaty gave Japan the
strength and the encouragement ultimately to intervene on her own
account and endeavor to curb the restless ambitions of Russia. Russia
gave a definite pledge that her troops would be withdrawn from
Manchuria by instalments on the expiration of a certain period. That
period expired on October 8th, 1903, but the pledge was never redeemed.
A show of evacuation was made in 1902, but the troops returned, and at
the end of October of 1903 Mukden was re-occupied in force. Never
during the whole period did Russia lose her grip upon Niuchwang.
[Sidenote: Russians in Korea]
Notwithstanding the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance
in the beginning of 1902, Japan waited for eighteen months before
entering into the diplomatic lists alone against Russia. But at last,
in August of 1903, this course was rendered imperative upon her, not
only by the failure of the Czar's Government to carry out their
engagements in regard to Manchuria, but by their aggressive policy in
Korea. M. Pavloff, rebuffed at Masampo in 1900, had turned his energies
in another direction. He secured for his countrymen valuable mining
rights in Northern Korea, and Russians then began to cross the Yalu
River and ultimately occupied Yongampo, a town of some importance on
the southern bank. Not content with railway enterprises, they even
started to construct fortifications. The Japanese, of course,
interposed energetically and succeeded in modifying the Russian
activity; but it now became apparent that, unless some binding
arrangement could be arrived at, Korea was destined to share the fate
of Manchuria.
[Sidenote: Japanese Protests]
Representations were therefore made at St. Petersburg calling for a
revision of the Treaties of 1896 and 1898, and a friendly settlement of
the respective rights of the two Powers. The story of the negotiations
which ensued is a simple one. It is a story of courteous and moderate
representation on the one side, and of studied delay and contemptuous
refusals on the other. The negotiations on behalf of Russia were in the
hands of Admiral Alexeieff, now elevated to the position of Viceroy of
the East, and it is said to be mainly due to his influence that his
Government adopted such an unbending attitude. Japan asked for a
repetition by Russia of the pledges she had given that she would
recognize the integrity and independence of China and Korea; and,
further, that she should recognize the preponderance of Japanese
political and commercial interests in Korea. Russia haughtily refused
to give Japan any pledge as to the integrity of China, and contended
that her position in Manchuria was regulated by treaties with China in
which Japan had no right to interfere. As to Korea, she proposed the
establishment of a neutral zone in the north of the province, leaving
the south of the country to become a sphere of commercial influence for
Japan, but she expressly stipulated that the latter Power should make
no use of any portion of Korean territory for strategic purposes. The
proposal was so absurdly one-sided that Japan returned to the charge
with the suggestion that a neutral zone should be established both on
the Manchurian and the Korean sides of the frontier. She also
reiterated her request for an agreement as to the maintenance of the
territorial integrity of Manchuria and China.
[Sidenote: Russia's Discourtesy]
Russia contemptuously delayed reply to these representations in spite
of the courteous requests of the Japanese Government. In the meanwhile
she kept augmenting her forces in the Far East till the situation
became impossible of continuance.
Every day that passed threatened to transfer the balance of naval power
in favor of the European Power, for a powerful fleet was being hurried
out to the Far East, and the badly-finished warships in Port Arthur
were being patched up by an army of mechanicians. Mr. Kurino, who
conducted the negotiations at St. Petersburg, pressed for an answer,
but was put off with promises no less than six times. Such discourtesy
could only have one result. The dignity of Japan could brook no further
insolence, and the Czar and his Ministers were politely informed that
under such circumstances negotiations were useless. It was in vain that
hurried telegrams were dispatched to Admiral Alexeieff to present a
reply to the justly incensed Cabinet at Tokio. The die had been cast,
and the big bully of the North, who had for so long baited the plucky
little Japanese, realized at last that threats and bluff no longer were
of any avail, and that the matter was now referred to the God of
Battles.
On February 7th, 1904, Japan formally broke off the negotiations and
withdrew her Minister from St. Petersburg. The war cloud had burst.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF THE YALU--SINKING OF THE CHIH-YUEN.]