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Rh forms the northwestern boundary of Korea along its Manchurian frontier. In Vladivostok it was whispered that the principal concessionaire was Bezobrazoff, Master of the Hunt to the Tsar, who was known to have at this time a powerful influence in the shaping of Russian politics. At the same time it was said that the Minister of Finance, Count Witte, opposed Bezobrazoff's policy and actions in the matter of the Yalu, but was forced to give way, as some of the members of the Romanoff family were among the stockholders of the concession.

Vladivostok, with its close proximity to the Tumen River that forms the northeastern boundary of Korea, was usually well informed as to what was going on in this decadent state, which for centuries past has been oppressed and dominated by the Chinese and Japanese and at one time even by the northern Tungutzes. We learned soon of the great concern and growing agitation of the Japanese, who saw in the concession on the Yalu the entering wedge of the Russian plan to annex Korea, just as the Muscovite power, after having obtained the concession for the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway through Manchuria, had succeeded in practically dominating in its entirety the northern province of Heilungkiang and partially the two southern ones of Kirin and Fengtien.

These fears gave Japan the excuse for sending armed detachments to the Yalu Valley to protest against and prevent what they maintained would be a violation of Korean territory by the owners of the concession. In the summer of 1903, the first encounter took place and gave a clue to the whole situation. A Russian naval vessel under command of Lieutenant Kartseff, a relative of some of the palace aristocracy, sailed from Port Arthur, the then naval base of Russia in South Manchuria,