112 



CHINA. 



physical and moral qualities offered themselves 

 freely. The Chinese arsenals were kept busy 

 turning out war material. The people as well 

 as the Government were bent on repairing the 

 military shortcomings of China. The foreign 

 ministers were formally received in audience by 

 the Emperor on Jan. 22, in the innermost of the 

 great halls of the Forbidden City. Afterward 

 the Empress-Dowager gave a reception to the 

 ladies of the legations. 



In the provinces where Tung-Fuh-Siang and 

 Prince Tuan were still at large Belgian mission- 

 aries and native Christians were murdered. A 

 royal edict was at once issued ordering that 

 Tung-Fuh-Siang should be beheaded according 

 to the terms of the protocol. The chief minis- 

 ter at court was Yung-Lu, whom the foreign 

 diplomats, except the Russian representative, had 

 tried to include in the list of proscribed officials, 

 but who, although no friend of foreigners, had 

 kept the antiforeign movement under control 

 and saved the foreigners in Pekin from massa- 

 cre and, when orders were issued for the exter- 

 mination of foreigners throughout China, had by 

 secret instructions sustained the Yangtse vice- 

 roys in their determination to disregard these 

 edicts. The foreign military authorities still 

 held Tientsin and administered the railroad be- 

 tween that city and Pekin. This action deter- 

 mined the Russians to prolong their occupation 

 of Niuchwang and the railroad leading to that 

 port. An American and a British war-vessel 

 went to Niuchwang, and disturbances occurred 

 between American seamen and Russian soldiers, 

 of which the Russian minister complained. 



The indemnity claims of the powers amount- 

 ed to 462,000,000 taels, 12,000,000 taels over the 

 agreed sum. The American and Russian minis- 

 ters proposed a pro rata reduction, to which the 

 others agreed excepting the British and Japan- 

 ese ministers, who stated that their claims had 

 been reduced to a minimum after an official in- 

 vestigation of each item. An instalment of the 

 indemnity was due, and was tendered by the 

 Chinese officials to the bankers' commission in 

 Shanghai, as provided in the protocol; but the 

 commission would not accept it because the for- 

 eign governments were unable to agree upon the 

 terms of division. At a meeting of military com- 

 manders in Tientsin on Jan. 25 it was agreed 

 that the garrisons could be reduced in the spring. 

 The Russian general declined to express an opin- 

 ion, the Russian forces having been already with- 

 drawn from Pechili in 1901. The German general 

 refused to attend, regarding the question as a 

 political one to be decided by the governments. 

 The Japanese commander informed the others 

 that Japan had already begun to withdraw her 

 troops without regard to the action of other 

 nations. The combined force at Tientsin had an 

 effective strength of 4,000 men. 



On Feb. 1 an imperial edict was issued legal- 

 izing marriages between Manchus and Chinese 

 and forbidding the practise of binding the feet 

 of girls. The imperial clan and the generals of 

 the Eight Banners were ordered to select young 

 Manchus to go abroad to study foreign branches 

 of knowledge. Hundreds of 'students, coming 

 from every province, were sent to Japan to ob- 

 tain the military, administrative, and scientific 

 knowledge which that nation had borrowed from 

 the West, thereby winning an independent posi- 

 tion among the powers that preyed upon China. 



Anglo- Japanese Alliance. An agreement 

 between (Jroat Britain and Japan was signed at 

 London on Jan. 30, 1902. in the following terms: 



The governments of Great Britain and Japan, 



actuated solely by a desire to maintain the status 

 quo and general peace in the extreme East, being 

 moreover specially interested in maintaining the 

 independence and territorial integrity of the Em- 

 pire of China and the Empire of Korea, and in 

 securing equal opportunities in those countries 

 for the commerce and industry of all nations, 

 hereby agree as follow: 



I. The high contracting parties, having mu- 

 tually recognized the independence of China and 

 of Korea, declare themselves to be entirely un- 

 influenced by any aggressive tendencies in either 

 country. Having in view, however, their special 

 interests, of which those of Great Britain relate 

 principally to China, while Japan, in addition to 

 the interests which she possesses in China, is in- 

 terested in a peculiar degree politically, as well 

 as commercially and industrially, in Korea, the 

 high contracting parties recognize that it will be 

 admissible for either of them to take such meas- 

 ures as may be indispensable in order to safe- 

 guard those interests if threatened either by the 

 aggressive action of any other power or by dis- 

 turbances arising in China or Korea, and neces- 

 sitating the intervention of either of the high 

 contracting parties for the protection of the lives 

 and property of its subjects. 



II. If either Great Britain or Japan, in the de- 

 fense of their respective interests as above de- 

 scribed, should become involved in war with an- 

 other power, the other high contracting party 

 will maintain a strict neutrality, and use its 

 efforts to prevent other powers from joining in 

 hostilities against its ally. 



III. If in the above event any other power or 

 powers should join in hostilities against that 

 ally, the other high contracting party will come 

 to its assistance and will conduct the war in 

 common, and make peace in mutual agreement 

 with it. 



IV. The high contracting parties agree that 

 neither of them will, without consulting the 

 other, enter into separate arrangements with an- 

 other power to the prejudice of the interests 

 above described. 



V. Whenever, in the opinion of either Great 

 Britain or Japan, the above-mentioned interests 

 are in jeopardy, the two governments will com- 

 municate with one another fully and frankly. 



VI. The present agreement shall come into 

 effect immediately after the date of its signature, 

 and remain in force for five years from that date. 

 In case neither of the high contracting parties 

 should have notified twelve months before the 

 expiration of the said five years the intention 

 of terminating it, it shall remain binding until 

 the expiration of one year from the day on which 

 either of the high contracting parties shall have 

 denounced it. But if. when the date fixed for its 

 expiration arrives, either ally is actually engaged 

 in war. the alliance shall ipso facto continue until 

 peace is concluded. 



In a covering letter the Marquis of Lansdowne 

 stated that the two powers had been in close 

 and uninterrupted 'communication throughout 

 the troubles and complications consequent upor 

 the Boxer outbreak and the attack upon the 

 legations, and each desired that the integrity 

 and independence of the Chinese Empire should 

 be preserved and that there should be no dis- 

 turbance of the territorial status quo either in 

 China or in the adjoining regions; that all na- 

 tions should, within those regions as well as 

 within the limits of the Chinese Empire, be af- 

 forded equal opportunities for the development 

 of their commerce and industry; and that peace 

 should not only be restored, but be maintained in 



