Page:The empire and the century.djvu/791

 Geök Tepe and Merv, we only woke up to the full significance of Russia's advance in the Middle East when we found her securely entrenched on the frontiers of Afghanistan, so it was only when she had got the Chinese Government in her grip that we began suddenly to realize the meaning of the naval station she had created at Vladivostok, 'the Ruler of the East,' and of the 5,000 miles of railway she was building across Siberia in order to bring her European possessions mto close contact with her new base on the Pacific. Nor had Russia appeared alone on the scene: she had brought France and Germany in her train; and though the former was content merely to nibble tentatively at the southern extremities of the huge 'yellow corpse,' Germany, with the voracity of a youthful appetite in such matters, lost no time in snatching at one of the choicest morsels. The seizure of Kiao-chau by Germany served as a welcome excuse for Russia to seize Port Arthur and Talienwan, and then the absorption of the whole of Manchuria became merely a question of time. First, the Siberian Railway had to be deflected to the long-coveted warm-water port,' and military precautions taken for its safety; then the Boxer Movement had to be stamped out by armed occupation, and that occupation could not, it was contended, be terminated without 'guarantees,' of which the nature was constantly modified so as to exclude finality.

The story of British policy in China during that eventful period, from 1895 down to 1902, will not constitute a very creditable chapter in our annals. It was a period in which painful exhibitions of weakness alternated with needlessly strong language, and vigorous protests were invariably followed by 'graceful' concessions. We seemed to have borrowed the most futile leaf out of the book of China's own statecraft, and to have no other aim than to save our faces by the most puerile devices. Thus, Wei-Hai-Wei, which we took with a great flourish of trumpets as a counterpoise to Port Arthur, dwindled down ultimately into a pleasant