Russian force certainly much under 50,000 men, until the second month of 1904, the position of the northern Colossus was an entirely false one, destined to lead to disastrous results. Whilst to travellers, to whom the real Far East must always remain a closed book, it seemed as if Russia was impregnably entrenched on Chinese territory, to those who are able to understand and appraise things oriental at their approximate value it was patent that the Muscovite power had overstepped the limits of her strength. The great effort made to complete and equip properly the Manchurian strategic line—the Chinese Eastern Railway-was an exhausting one for Russia; the creation of Dalny at an expenditure of some 30,000,000 roubles was a dismal failure; the defences of Port Arthur were incomplete; the dream that Manchuria could be thoroughly Russianised was acknowledged to be a vain one all these things, I say, were understood long before the outbreak of war. The exact position was this. Sixteen hundred miles of railway had been completed and the permanent steel bridges were almost all in position. Admiral Alexeieff had succeeded in raising the actual number of troops in Manchuria and the Kwangtung leased territory (the Port Arthur territory) by the beginning of 1904 to nearly 100,000 men. He had massed a great fleet of battleships, armoured cruisers, and torpedo craft in the waters of Port Arthur; whilst four very modern cruisers were stationed at Vladivostok. Beyond this there is nothing to say; VOL. II L for the slender chain of armed men extending all along the course of the railway, and massed in small numbers at certain strategic points, was totally insufficient to attract even notice in Chinese provinces containing a native population approaching twenty millions. The Russian towns supposed to exist in Manchuria were totally non-existent, with the solitary exception of Harbin. In their place were a few trifling railway Settlements composed mainly of Russians indirectly connected with the railway or the army, which were finding existence harder and harder as the Russian Government expenditure on railway and army works diminished. Beyond this, as I have already said, there was nothing, absolutely nothing, except a vainglorious and irresponsible bluff. Conscious that he could only maintain his position by pursuing a so-called expansionist or forward policy, Admiral Alexeieff, newly created a "Viceroy" in the face of the open sneers of his rivals, who looked upon him as a parvenu, concentrated his entire efforts in devising methods by which the Japanese would be incapacitated from knocking down his Manchurian house of cards. The methods he pursued have already been most fully dealt with in the chapters treating of Korea. He wished to erect an impassable barrier at the Yalu so that the Japanese, whom he affected to despise so much, could not one fine day advance on him and destroy him, as he knew they would unless things were given enough time to solidify. He also wished to gain such a strong foothold in the Korean capital itself, by detaching a Russian regiment which would "assure the safety of the Korean Emperor," that the Korean Court would tell the Japanese that they had no business in Korea, and that they had better go away. The direct Japanese negotiations, a secondary consideration in the estimation of the great Admiral, it is true, became so uncomfortable in January that his policy underwent a material change, and Port Arthur regiments were hastily sent off to the Yalu in a fit of fear; but a glance at the map which revealed the huge bulk of the Russian Empire and the poor little group of Japanese islands was sufficient to give confidence even in moments of some uncomfortableness. When the Japanese surprise attack of the 8th February occurred, and stern reality brushed away all empire-dreams, there was an absolute, blind, unreasoning panic amongst all Russians from Port Arthur to Harbin and from Vladivostok to the trans-Baikal province. Everyone knew from generals and admirals to isvostchicks and enginedrivers that the very thing which should have been averted at all costs-a Japanese war-had occurred, and that the house of cards would tumble down very quickly; for during all 1902 and 1903 it was becoming more and more apparent to all Russians in Manchuria that they were camping in Chinese provinces. Of the nominal force of 100,000 men under the Viceroy's orders in the "Three Eastern Provinces," |