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LEFT CHINA 472 CHINA of the United States, and that he would consider their consent final and irrev- ocable. The intense anti-foreign sentiment among the Chinese reached a crisis in the Boxer uprising of 1900. The murder of many of the missionaries in the N. provinces, and finally the isolation of Peking and the siege of the legations, called for forceful intervention on the part of the powers. The first interna- tional relief expedition under Admiral Seymour left Taku on June 10; was un- able to reach Peking, and was forced back by the Boxers. It was only able to retreat with the greatest danger and difficulty, and but for timely re-enforce- ment would undoubtedly have been cut to pieces. On June 17 the Taku forts Boxers, who were constantly being re- enforced by Imperial troops. The court fled into Shensi before the allies reached Peking. The subsequent military opera- tions consisted chiefly of punitive expe- ditions to the S. and W. Negotiations for peace were at once beg:un. On Dec. 4, the powers sent a joint note to the Chinese peace commissioners, to be sub- mitted to the emperor. The note de- manded, among other acts, the execu- tion of the leaders in the massacre of foreigners and the payment of an in- demnity, which in October, 1901, was fixed at $735,000,000. On the ratifica- tion of the indemnity agreement and 11 other articles of concession, the foreign troops were withdrawn from Peking. On the close of the Boxer movement THE MARBLE BOAT AT THE SUMMER PALACE, PEKING, CHINA at the mouth of the Pei-ho river were reduced, having opened fire on the inter- national squadron anchored in the bay. On July 14 the city of Tien-Tsin was taken by the allies and made the base of the international expedition for the relief of the legations in Peking, which started on Aug. 4. Peking was entered A.ug. 15, after some hard fighting, and the foreign ministers, and their families, the legation guards, and the people who had made their way in safety to the le- gations for protection, were relieved. The raising of the siege, which had ex- isted from June 11, was most timely, as the ammunition of the besieged was al- most exhausted, and all of the foreigners were suffering greatly from confinement and the apprehension of a terrible fate in case they should be unable to hold out against the continuous attacks of the and the return to Peking of the Imperial family (Jan. 7, 1903), the Manchurian question came to the foreground. Rus- sia's shifting policy with regard to the evacuation of Manchuria brought about the Russo-Japanese war. The result of it is that, according to the treaty of Portsmouth, Manchuria, with the excep- tion of a part of the Liao-tong Peninsula, was returned to China (1905). In the same year a strain between China and the United States was brought about by the restriction of Chinese immigration, in consequence of which all American goods were boycotted in China. In the following year China was asked to intro- duce certain reforms into her administra- tion. These were to a certain extent carried out, one of them being the aboli- tion for ten years of smoking opium. In September, 1907, the Emperor issued an