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 of the Russian forces in Manchuria. Russia declared her willingness to withdraw on conditions which would have virtually closed Manchuria and Mongolia to other than Russian enterprise. In Korea, Russian pressure increased also. In July 1902, Russian troops appeared at the mouth of the Yalu River. Several other acts convinced Japan that Russia had decided upon a policy which was a menace to her interests, if not to her wry existence. In July 1903, she began negotiations with Russia concerning the maintenance of the policy of the Open Door and the territorial integrity of China, but, having met with no success whatever, she resorted to war on February 10th, 1904. China remained neutral.

Russia was defeated. On September 5th, 1905, she concluded the Treaty of Portsmouth, whereby she relinquished her exceptional rights in South Manchuria in favour of Japan. The leased territory and all rights connected with the lease were transferred to Japan, and also the railway between Port Arthur and Changchun, with its branches, as well as all coal-mines in that region belonging to or worked for the benefit of the railway. Both parties agreed to restore to the exclusive administration of China all portions of Manchuria occupied or under the control of their respective troops, with the exception of the leased territory. Both reserved the right to maintain (under certain specified conditions) guards to protect their respective railway lines in Manchuria, the number of such guards not to exceed fifteen per kilometre.

Russia had lost half of her sphere of influence, which was henceforth to be restricted to North Manchuria. She retained her position there and increased her influence in the following years, but, when the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917, China decided to reassert her sovereignty in this area.

At first, her action was restricted to participation in the Allied intervention (1918–1920) which, in connection with the chaotic conditions rapidly developing, after the Russian Revolution, in Siberia and North Manchuria, had been proposed by the United States of America for the double purpose of protecting the vast stores of war material and supplies accumulated at Vladivostok and of assisting the evacuation of some 50,000 Czechoslovak troops, who were retreating from the eastern front across Siberia. This proposal was accepted and it was arranged that each country should send an expeditionary force of 7,000 mean to be assigned to its own special section of the Trans-Siberian line, the Chinese Eastern Railway being confided to the sole charge of the Chinese. To ensure the working of the railways in co-operation with the Allied forces, a special Inter-Allied Railway Committee was formed in 1919 with technical and transportation boards under it. In 1920, the intervention came to an end and the Allied forces were withdrawn from Siberia except the Japanese, who had become involved in open hostilities with the Bolsheviks. The fighting dragged on for nearly two years. In 1922, after the Washington Conference, the Japanese troops were also withdrawn and, simultaneously, the Inter-Allied Committee, with its technical board, ceased to exist.

Meanwhile, China, after an abortive attempt of General Horvath, the head of the Chinese Eastern Railway, to set up an independent regime in the railway area, assumed responsibility for the preservation of order in that aeraarea [sic] (1920). In the same year, she concluded an agreement with the re-organised Russo-Asiatic Bank and announced her intention of assuming temporarily supreme control of an agreement with a new Russian Government. China also announced her intention of resuming the advantages conferred on her by the contract of 1896 and the original statutes of the Company. Thenceforth, the President and four members of the Board of Directors of the Company and two members of the Audit Committee were to be nominated by the Chinese Government. Russian predominance was also weakened by other measures which followed. The Russian armed