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 reckon with the designs of Russia. The government of that great and expanding empire, as its first act of interference, compelled Japan to surrender the best fruit of the war in the retrocession to China of the Liao-tung Peninsula. And since that date it has been a constant competitor with the island empire for favor and privileges at the court of Seoul. It may be that this competition in Korea will bring about the next conflict in the Pacific, and even menace the peace of the world.