Page:League of Nations-Appeal by the Chinese Government.pdf/31

 referred to, Russia was authorised by China to carry a branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway across Manchuria in a direct line from Chita to Vladivostok. This line was said to be needed for the transportation of Russian forces to be sent to the East in case Japan should again attack China. The Russo-Chinese Bank (later the Russo-Asiatic Bank) was established to mask somewhat the official character of the enterprise. The Bank formed in its turn the Chinese Eastern Railway Company for the construction and operation of the railway. By the terms of the contract of September 8th, 1896, between the Bank and the Chinese Government, the Company was to build the railway and operate it for eighty years, at the end of which it was to become the property of China free of charge, but China had the right of purchasing it at a price to be agreed upon at the end of thirty-six years. During the period of the contract, the company was to have the absolute and exclusive right of administration of its lands. This clause was interpreted by Russia in a much broader way than various other stipulations in the contract seem to warrant. China protested against the continuous Russian attempts to enlarge the scope of the contract, but was not able to prevent it. Russia gradually succeeded in exercising in the Chinese Eastern Railway area, with its rapidly developing railway towns, rights equivalent to rights of sovereignty. China had also consented to hand over free of charge all Government lands needed by the railway, while private lands might be expropriated at current prices. The Company had, furthermore, been permitted to construct and operate the telegraph lines necessary for its own use.

In 1898, Russia secured a lease for twenty-five years of the southern part of the Liaotung Peninsula, which Japan had been forced to give up in 1895, and also secured the right to connect the Chinese Eastern Railway to Russia, at Harbin with PortArthur and Dalny (now Dairen) in the leased territory. Authority was given for the construction of a naval port at Port Arthur. In the area traversed by this branch line, the Company was granted the right to cut timber and to mine coal for the use of the railway. All the stipulations of the contract of September 8th, 1896, were extended to the supplementary branches. Russia was authorised to make her own tariff arrangements in side the leased territory. In 1899, Dalny (now Dairen) was declared a free port and opened to foreign shipping and commerce. No railway privileges were to be given to the subjects of other Powers in the area traversed by the branch line. In the neutral ground north of the leased territory, no ports were to be opened to foreign trade and no concessions or privileges were to be granted without the consent of Russia.

In 1900, Russia occupied Manchuria on the ground that the Boxer rising had endangered her nationals. Other Powers protested and demanded the withdrawal of her forces, but Russia delayed taking action in this sense. In February 1901, the draft of a secret Sino-Russian treaty was discussed in St. Petersburg, by the terms of which China, in return for the restoration of her civil authority in Manchuria, was to sanction the maintenance of the railway guards which Russia had established under Clause 6 of the Fundamental Contract of 1896, and to engage not to transfer to other nations or their subjects, without the consent of Russia, mines or other interests in Manchuria, Mongolia, and Sinkiang. These and some other clauses in the draft treaty, when they became known, aroused opposition from public opinion in China and other countries and, on April 3rd, 1901, the Russian Government issued a circular note to the effect that the project had been withdrawn.

Japan followed these manœuvres with particular attention. On January 30th, 1902, she had concluded the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance and accordingly felt herself more secure. However, she was still concerned at the prospect of Russian encroachments into Korea and Manchuria. She therefore pressed with the other Powers for the evacuation