All through this time Russia was silent. In the light of the fact that Russia already had the fifteen-year lease of the same Kiaochou Bay through the "Cassini Convention," this amiable silence of Russia ranks as the most eloquent silence in the diplomatic history of the Far East in recent times. Then-also silently-in December, 1897, the Far-Eastern Fleet of Russia stole into Port Arthur and Talienwan. When Russia did speak at last she sounded like a bomb-not only in the ears of China but also in those of a number of other powers, including Japan, more especially Japan. The bomb was in the shape of the Russo-Chinese convention of March 27th, 1898, for the lease of Liaotung Peninsula, the full text of which the reader will find in Appendix 8.

This convention turned over to Russia Port Arthur and Talienwan-the Dalny of the Russians and the present Dairen-for the specific purpose of creating a formidable naval base and fortified city at Port Arthur, throwing in what hinterland was thought "necessary to secure the proper defense of this area on the land side."

This handing over of Port Arthur at the throat of the Gulf of Chihli, on which stands Tientsin, the port to the capital City of Peking-a naval base which for years had been proclaimed the Gibraltar of the Far Eastinto the hand of Russia, was quite a dramatic event with the peoples of the East generally. It fell upon Japan as a sort of combination kick in the face and loud ha-ha. For this land which Russia took away from China was precisely the same territory Russia with the help of France and Germany had driven Japan out of not more than three years before. And on what ground? Why, on the ground that the Japanese or any other foreign power's occupation of the Liaotung Peninsula was destructive of the peace of the Far East. It was an object lesson of considerable size to Japan in the hypocrisy of European and so-called Christian powers.

The Russian Far-Eastern policy came to flower in this convention of March 27th, 1898. This and what the Russians did in translating its terms into facts following the signing of the convention, laid the foundation of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. It had only nine articles in it. It had not many more than 1,000 words in it. It was the most epochal of documents as far as the destiny of Manchuria was concerned. It affected the fate of Japan as no foreign treaty concluded between two foreign countries had ever done.

It turned over to Russia Port Arthur and Talienwan on lease for the term of twenty-five years with an opportunity of prolonging by mutual consent-"for the purpose of ensuring that Russian naval forces shall possess an entirely secure base on the littoral of northern China." -Articles I and III. "The entire military command of the land and naval forces and equally the supreme civil administration" of the leased territory were turned over entirely to the Russian authorities for the term of the lease.-Art. IV. Port Arthur and a section of Talienwan were to be closed ports.-Art. VI. It gave the concession to Russia to build a line of railway connecting Port Arthur and Talienwan with one of the stations on the main line of the Chinese Eastern Railway on precisely the same favorable terms as were granted to the Russo-Chinese Bank (an alias for the Russian Government) in 1896.-Art. VIII. "All the stipulations of the contract concluded by the Chinese Government with the Russo-Chinese Bank on August 27 (September 8), 1896, shall apply scrupulously to these supplementary branches."

These were the high lights of this astounding document. Here at last the century-old dream of Russia for an ice-free port came true-and in a manner almost too good to be true. If it meant a lot for Russia, it certainly meant a great deal more to Manchuria. For

a time it appeared as if the Russian "rape" of Manchuria was complete.

BUILDING THE SOUTH MANCHURIA RAILWAY

On the 28th of March, 1898-that is to say, on the very next day after the signing of the above convention, Russians took possession of Port Arthur. That was a month and ten days before even the boundaries of Port Arthur, Talienwan, and the leased hinterland were defined. For the agreement on the details of the boundaries was signed on March 7th.

As soon as spring opened the Liao River that year the Russian engineers started work-not at Port Arthur or Talienwan in the leased territory but near the port of Newchwang, which the British had opened through the Treaty of Tientsin of June, 1858. The Russians selected a spot some three miles up the river from the town of Yingkou (which the British took as Newchwang of the Tientsin Treaty) and made it the terminus of a branch line connecting it with the main line from Harbin to Dairen at Tashihchao. This fourteen-mile branch was completed in 1899, and over it the huge quantity of rails, sleepers and other materials for the construction of the main line was rushed. There was a good reason for starting on this branch line instead of on the main line at Port Arthur or starting the work from Dalny, as the Russians christened the Town of Talien. For the country about Port Arthur and north of it is hilly and broken up. It called for a number of cuts in rocky mountainsides and for many bridges. All of which meant many months of work before the southern end of this line could be completed to such an extent that the building materials for the line farther north could be rushed over it. The building of the branch line from Yingkou east to Tashihchao solved all this. From Tashihchao the

work was pushed southward to Port Arthur and northward to Mukden at the same time, with the construction materials shipped over the branch line. By October, 1899, locomotives and construction trains were running between the port of Yingkou and Dalny.

FOUNDING THE CITY OF HARBIN

While the building of the southern end of the SouthManchurian line was being pushed north and south from Tashihchao, in the spring of the same year, the Russian engineers went up the Sungari River. They went a bit beyond the point where the Hulan River empties into the Sungari and selected a spot on the southern bank of the Sungari. At the time when the Russian engineers fixed upon this point as the junction of the Chinese Eastern main line with its South-Manchurian branch line to Port Arthur, there was just one solitary house standing on it a Chinese distillery, according to Sir Alexander Hosie, whose book on Manchuria is filled with much of intimate knowledge of the land. Such was the modest beginning of the greatest city of North Manchuria, which to-day is known all over the world as the City of Harbin. From that point the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway was rushed in three directions at once-toward Vladivostok on the east, toward Manchuli on the northwest to join the trunk line of the Trans-Siberian there, and in the direction of Port Arthur and Dalny in the south.

The railway lines were built "regardless." Feverish haste was the dominating note which characterized the mad rush of construction. Expenditure bothered the Russian not at all. He had the Russo-Chinese Bank back of him; and the Russo-Chinese Bank was the financial lamb's skin in which the Russian Ministry of Finance was masquerading. All along the new railway line a

vast stream of gold poured into North Manchuria from Europe. Most of this golden flood which financed the gigantic imperialistic adventure came from the strong boxes of the thrifty French people. Into the wilderness of North Manchuria rushed coolies from Shantung and from the Metropolitan Province of Chihli by hundreds of thousands. A few Chinese grumbled over Russian arrogance and brutal highway robbery, but they were those who were not under the golden shower of Russian rubles. The Chinese coolies and merchants crowding into the newly opened field did not complain at all. And all went merrily with the Russians.

BOXER TROUBLE OF 1900

Then came the year 1900 bringing the Boxer trouble. One Japanese writer makes the assertion that there were 1,300 versts of Russian railway completed in Manchuria at the time of the Boxer rising and that out of that total mileage only 400 versts escaped damage from the Chinese attacks. Just what is his authority for the statement is not apparent. There is no question, however, that considerable damage was done to the Russian lines in Manchuria. The new Russian railway establishments at Harbin suffered severe and serious loss from fire. To the careless eye the disorders of Boxer days appear to have given quite a setback to the Russian railway construction program.

It was nothing of the sort in reality. It was the one supreme excuse for which the Militant Masters of Russia hungered and prayed. It gave them, suddenly and as from the hand of Fate, the long longed-for opportunity for occupying the vital strategic points in Manchuria with their army. The Chinese army, in its madness, on July 15th, 1900, crossed the Amur and invaded the Russian territory at Blagoveschensk. After that