CHAPTER XLI 



AMERICA, GERMANY, AND THE SPANISH WAR 1897-1903 



DURING the early days of this second official stay of 

 mine at Berlin, Russia had, in one way and another, 

 secured an entrance into China for her trans-Siberian 

 railway, and seemed to have taken permanent possession 

 of the vast region extending from her own territory to 

 the Pacific at Port Arthur. Germany followed this exam 

 ple, and, in avenging the murder of certain missionaries, 

 took possession of the harbor of Kiao-Chau. Thereby 

 other nations were stirred to do likewise, England, 

 France, and Italy beginning to move for extensions of ter 

 ritory or commercial advantages, until it looked much as 

 if China was to be parceled out among the greater Euro 

 pean powers, or at least held in commercial subjection, 

 to the exclusion of those nations which had pursued a 

 more dilatory policy. 



Seeing this danger, our government instructed its rep 

 resentatives at the courts of the great powers to request 

 them to join in a declaration in favor of an &quot;open-door 

 policy&quot; in China, thus establishing virtually an interna 

 tional agreement that none of the powers obtaining con 

 cessions or controlling &quot;spheres of influence&quot; in that 

 country should secure privileges infringing upon the 

 equality of all nations in competing for Chinese trade. 

 This policy was pushed with vigor by the Washington 

 cabinet, and I was instructed to secure, if possible, the as 

 sent of the German Government, which, after various con 

 ferences at the Foreign Office and communications with 



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