The coming power; a contemporary history of the Far East, 1898-1905

Front matter

TPpf P

COMING POWE 1898 - 1903

MICHAEL JF MCCARI

Chapter I Pagb

The Chinese Empire — Korea— Chino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 — Treaty of Shimonoseki — Intervention of Russia, BYance, and Germany .... 3

CHAPTER n

German seizure of Kiao-Chau — Anglo-Chinese agreement— Dissatisfaction in England — Sir M. Hicks-Beach on "the open door " — Port Arthur and Dalny leased to Russia — Russian aggression in Manchuria . . . 15

CHAPTER HI

England leases Wei-hai-wei— Our undertaking to Germany— Anglo-German loan — Anglo-Chinese agreement

— Franco-Chinese agreement — Concession to Japan— m iv CONTENTS

PAGE

Comparison of Russian, English, German, French, and Japanese spheres of influence in China in 1898 — The war in the Soudan and South Africa . . . -29

CHAPTER IV

The Chinese Emperor — The Dowager Empresses as Regents — The Emperor advocates reform — Coup d'etat at the palace — Kwang-su medically examined — Suppression of the reform movement — Spread of anti-foreign feeling . 37

CHAPTER V

Kwang-Su's remarkable decree appointing an heir-apparent — Brief sketch of the Manchu dynasty of Chinese Emperors ....... 49

CHAPTER VI

Spread of Secret Societies — Siege of the Legations at Peking — Failure of Seymour's relief expedition — International bombardment of Taku — We appeal to Japan — Kwang-Su appeals to Queen Victoria . . .60

CHAPTER VII

The Siege of the Legations at Peking, July, 1900 — Murder of the German Minister and the Japanese Chancellor — Revolution at Peking — Our position in China 72

CHAPTER VIII

Siege of the Legations at Peking, continued — Sir Robert Hart — Arrival of Sir Alfred Gaselee and the International Relief Force — Flight of the Imperial Family , , 85

CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX

PAGE

Occupation of Peking — Russia proposes immediate evacuation — ^Arrival and operations of the German army under Waldersee — Russian excesses in Manchuria — Proposed Russo-Chinese agreement of 1901 withdrawn — Anglo-German agreement of 1900 — America's position — Our interests in the Yangtse Valley — The Peace Protocol and Indemnity, 1901 ...... 95

CHAPTER X

Return of the Chinese Court to Peking — Death of Li- Hung-Chang — ^The position of France as Protector of Roman Catholic Missions in the East — The Anglo- Japanese treaty of alliance . . . . .121

CHAPTER XI

Differences between Russia and Japan — Alexieff appointed Viceroy — The Tsar's reception of the ambassadors — Russia procrastinates — Japan prepares for war — Meeting of the British Parliament .... 136

Book II Chapter XII

Japanese attack on the Port Arthur Fleet — The Chemulpho sea-fight — Declaration of war between Japan and Russia — Alexieff's proclamation — Kuropatkin appointed vi CONTENTS

PAGE

Commander-in-Chief — Makaroff appointed to command the fleet — Japanese attempt to seal Port Arthur — Stoessel's proclamation — Japanese Army lands in Korea . . i53

CHAPTER XIII

Russian Volunteer Fleet— The Tsar and the Press— Kuroki's advance in Korea — Petropavlovsk sunk — Death of Makaroff — Japanese victory at the Yalu — Russian retreat— Second Japanese Army lands at Lia-Tong — Port Arthur cut off — Third Japanese Army lands at Takushan 175

CHAPTER XIV

Nogi's victory at Kinchau — Dalny taken by the Japanese — Oku's victory at Telissu — Nodzu and Kuroki join hands —Continued Russian retreat— Sortie of the Port Arthur fleet on June 23rd— Russian dissensions . . .192

CHAPTER XV

Continued Russian retreat — Oku captures Kaiping — Kuroki captures Fenshuiling Pass^ — Kuropatkin's philosophy— Keller defeated in the east, Sakharoff in the west — Oku captures Tashichiao — Japanese occupy Niuchwang — Oku takes Haicheng — Domestic troubles in Russia — The Tsar and Stoessel— Defeat and death of Keller at Yangzeling ........ 204

CHAPTER XVI

Naval battle off Port Arthur— Defeat and dispersal of the Russian Fleet — Death of Admiral Vitoft — Ukhtomsky and the battleships return to Port Arthur — Fortunes of the Tsarevitch, Reshitelni, Diana, Askold, and Novik — Kamimura defeats the Vladivostock squadron — Destruction of the Rurik — Port Arthur sunmioned to surrender — Christening of the Tsarevitch — The great pitched battle of Liao-Yang — Defeat of the Russians and retreat to Mukden ....... 218

CONTENTS vii

CHAPTER XVII

PAGE

General Kuroki and his men — Japanese virtues — The Tsar inspects the Baltic Fleet— The Fleet sets sail from Libau — Alexieff and Stoessel — Siege of Port Arthur — General Gripenberg appointed to command Second Manchurian Army — Kuropatkin's proclamation . . 244

CHAPTER XVIII

Battle of the Sha-ho— Tsar and Mikado contrasted — Russian and Japanese accounts of the battle — Decisive Russian defeat — Great losses and captures — Japanese army advances — Stoessel's position in Port Arthur . 260

CHAPTER XIX

Discontent in Russia — Respite from hostilities in Manchuria— ^Voyage of the Baltic Fleet — Dogger Bank outrage— Inactivity of our Navy — Roshdestvensky's explanation— Finding of the Commission — The Russian Volunteer Fleet's depredations — The torpedo-destroyer Caroline . 276

CHAPTER XX

Siege of Port Arthur — Japanese bombard the Russian ships — Stoessel becomes melodramatic — Progress of the Baltic Fleet— Halt at Madagascar— Alexieff at St. Petersburg— German opinion on the war — The Zemstvos demand reform — Japanese Finance, Economy, and Patriotism — Mutiny, riots and coercion in Russia — Council of Ministers — Pobiedonostseff's advice to the Tsar 301

CHAPTER XXI

Narrative of the final months of the siege of Port Arthur — Stoessel's telegrams — The capitulation — The prisoners — Meeting between Nogi and Stoessel — Stoessel's return to Europe ....... 317 viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXII

PAGE

The Tsar's scheme for improving the administration — Grand Duke Sergius opposes it — Imperial censure of the Zemstvos — Pobiedonostseff' s fanatical appeal to Nicholas — Spurious revolution at St. Petersburg— Sergius assassi- . nated — Armies before Mukden — Defeat and resignation of Gripenberg — The Kaiser reappears . . . 342

CHAPTER XXIII

Envelopment of the Russians at Mukden — Oyama occupies the Manchurian capital — Colossal Russian losses — Russians retreat 150 miles to Changchun — Kuropatkin superseded by Linievitch — Japanese advance eighty miles and occupy Tieling, Kaiyuan, and Changtufu — Financial crisis in Russia — Pontifical Rescript of the Tsar — A parliament promised — Prospects of peace considered — Russia's solvency — Summary of the Japanese operations — Continued Russian boastfulness .... 356

CHAPTER XXIV

Increasing strength of the Japanese — The new Asia — The United Kingdom's responsibility — British relations with the Kaiser — Germany's new world-empire — Expansion of America— The British Foreign Office— The British Crown, Parliament, and electorate— The British War Office — The leaders of the British nation — Results of the war for China and Russia . . . . .381

ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

THE KAISER, THE MIKADO, AND THE TSAR

COUNT KATSURA, COUNT LAMSDORFF, LI-HUNG- CHANG, AND MARQUIS ITO . . .

THE CHINESE IMPERIAL FAMILY

ADMIRAL ALEXIEFF .... "J

GENERAL STOESSEL . . . . j

GENERAL LINIEVITCH . . . . )

GENERAL GRIPENBERG . . . .J

GRAND DUKE SERGIUS . . . 1

M. POBIEDONOSTSEFF . . . .J

GENERAL KUROPATKIN . . . .

ADMIRAL TOGO .....

ADMIRAL MAKAROFF . . . . .

WITH KUROKI IN KOREA ....

A JAPANESE BAYONET ATTACK

KUROKI'S ARTILLERY AT LIAO-YANG

GENERAL KUROKI .... J

GENERAL NODZU . . . .1

Frontispiece

To face p. 29 49

„ 121

„ 161

„ 181

„ 219

» 239

ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

GENERAL NOGI GENERAL OKU MARSHAL OYAMA

Tofacep.zSI

THE BATTLE OF LIAO-YANG ... „ 30

MAPS

EASTERN ASIA ...... To face p. I

THE SEAT OF WAR . . . • ' » ^53

Introduction

ONE of our eminent living statesmen has recently exhorted British citizens to cultivate the art of " thinking imperially." The heir to the throne, after his journey through the oversea dominions of the British Empire, brought us back the message that we should "wake up." It is immaterial which advice we take first If we think imperially, we shall, as a necessary consequence, wake up. If we wake up, we shall fix our thoughts upon the possibilities of the great Empire which is our heritage, and shall thereupon begin to think imperially.

This book is written by a British citizen for British citizens, from the standpoint of a citizen of the British Empire. The events of which it is a record may be said to affect a greater number of the earth's inhabitants than, perhaps, those of any other history embracing a similar period of time ; and every citizen of the United Kingdom is directly interested in the future disposition of the vast areas of the world with which the narrative deals.

The period of action covered is almost commensurate with the life of Port Arthur as a Russian fortress. It begins with the unwarrantable seizure of Kiao-Chau by Germany in November, 1897, which was immediately followed by the acquisition of Port Arthur and Dalny by Russia ; and it outlines the chain of events xii INTRODUCTION

in the Far East from that date down to the fall of Port Arthur and the utter defeat of the Russian armies in Manchuria in 1905.

The internal affairs of China, Russia, and Japan are also dealt with in so far as they influence or explain the course of events in the chief theatre of action.

Three central figures will be found to stand out prominently amongst the actors in this world-drama — namely, Kwang-Su, Emperor of China and Son of Heaven ; Nicholas II., Tsar of Russia and God on Earth ; and Mutsohito, Mikado of Japan and Honourable Gate of his people. Kwang-Su is the embodiment of no less than 464,000,000 of human beings, while Nicholas Romanoff represents 141,000,000, and Mutsohito is the trusted sovereign of 45,000,000. Between them, these three individuals influence the destinies of 650,000,000 of people, or nearly half the inhabitants of the earth. And one may predict, without extravagance, that students of humanity in ages to come will point to the years dealt with in this historical sketch as the commencement of a new epoch in the economy of our planet.

Grouped around the three protagonists are three clusters of characters who may be described generically as satellites ; but some of whom exercise considerable influence on the suns around which they revolve.

We shall find the autocratic power of Kwang-Su, for instance, always restricted by the Dowager Empress, Tszu-Hszi, and the other Dowager, Tszu-An ; by statesmen such as Li-Hung-Chang and Prince Ching ; by generals like Tung-Fu-Hsiang and Jung-Lu ; by his Board of Censors ; and by the officials of his harem.

Nicholas II. finds his freedom of action constantly restrained by the Empresses Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna ; by the Grand Dukes Vladimir,

INTRODUCTION xiii

Sergius, and Paul ; by his religious adviser, Pobiedonostseff ; by his generals, Kuropatkin, Sakharoff, Stoessel, Gripenberg, and Linievitch ; by viceroys like Alexieff ; by admirals like Makaroff, Vitoft, and Ukhtomsky ; and by statesmen like Sviatopolk-Mirski, Witte, and Mouravieff.

But Mutsohito thinks and acts in complete harmony with his associates, a shrewd man like old William I. of Germany, surrounded by statesmen, generals, and admirals, whose names will never be forgotten — Ito and Katsura ; Kuroki, Oku, Nodzu, Nogi, and Oyama ; Togo, Uriu, and Kamimura. Forty years ago the Emperor of Japan was a powerless puppet in the hands of the military caste and the territorial aristocracy. To-day he is the mightiest man in Asia, and presides worthily over a State which is universally regarded as the Coming Power in the politics of the world.

All these characters play an important part in moulding the future history of the globe. But, in addition, there are the representatives of expectant Europe and America.

First stands the grasping, restless Kaiser, William II. of Germany, with both hands open, backed by his Chancellor, Von Bulow, his admiral. Von Diedrichs, and his general. Von Waldersee. Bpside this German constellation we shall see our own Lord Salisbury, the faithful Claude Macdonald, the shrewd Robert Hart, and the capable soldier Gaselee, striving and compromising, ever on the alert to secure some real advantage for the United Kingdom. And in the background are the Frenchmen, Loubet, Rousseau, Combes, Hanotaux, and Delcass^, always supporting the Russians, and occasionally coming forward on their own account as Protectors of Roman Catholic Missions in the East I And the astute Americans are xiv INTRODUCTION

there — McKinley, Choate, Conger, Roosevelt, and Hay, asserting themselves for the first time as an Asiatic Power.

British citizens have a pressing and immediate in- ( terest in the competing aims of all these national I groups. It behoves us to note how the unquestioned superiority, almost tantamount to monopoly, which was the prerogative of our country in lands beyond the seas one or two generations ago, is now contested and encroached upon on every side by powerful rivals.

It is conceivable that time was when China might have become the absolute property of this country. When we went to America in days of old, did we not seize the best portion of that continent within the north temperate zone for our heritage, colonise it, and make of it a New England ? And when we went to the Cape, did not all South Africa become part of the British Empire ? And when we went to India, did we not appropriate the entire Hindustan peninsula from the crests of the Himalayas to Point de Galle ? And did we not enter into possession of a whole continent in Australia and New Zealand, the area of which is over 3,000,000 square miles ? And, better still, no rival can truthfully gainsay that all these achievements were for the good of humanity.

It concerns us now to observe the altered position which we occupy, when a vast and fruitful section of the world is about to be thrown open to trade. America, eager and expectant, is on the ground before us, watching from her new base in the Philippine Islands. Quaint and playful Japan has developed into a giant able to handle the hugest implements of modern warfare with unsurpassed skill. She is there, as the coming world-power, claiming her right at the cannon's mouth to a predominant voice in the settlement of China. Young men can remember when

INTRODUCTION xv

America and Japan were negligible quantities in such matters.

And, more portentous still, Germany too is there,

awake, rejuvenated, no longer terrified by fear of

\ French invasion. And France herself is still at the

f front, competing with us, thwarting us, and shutting

i us out. And, lastly, Russia — that inchoate mass of

dumb humanity with whom we never had to reckon

in the colonising days of old.

Even the smaller nations of Europe are there who never contemplate drawing the sword — the Belgians with their railways and syndicates, the Danes and Norwegians, and our ancient rivals, the Dutch, who have long ceased to be a fighting power. Nay, the Austrians, almost shut out from the sea, and even the Italians, have found their way to China, when the possibility of partition opens up visions of new territory and increased trade.

Events move rapidly nowadays, and the United Kingdom is confronted with a constantly-increasing competition which compels its citizens to take stock from year to year of the decisive occurrences of their own day. This book is an honest attempt at a connected narrative of facts, and it will have accomplished no unworthy purpose if it helps to stimulate the interest of British citizens in the rights and duties of the British Empire in Eastern Asia at this critical conjuncture.

BOOK I

"We have a warning example in China. . . . The modern regime of public opinion is, in an unorganised form, what the Chinese educational and political systems are in an organised ; and unless individuality shall be able successfully to assert itself against this yoke, Europe, notwithstanding its noble antecedents and its professed Christianity, will tend to become another China."— John Stuart Mill.

CHAPTER I

The Chinese Empire — Korea — Chino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 — Treaty of Shimonoseki — Intervention of Russia, France, and Germany.

IN January, 1898, the Cologne Gazette informed its readers that a treaty of alliance between Great Britain and Japan was then in contemplation. It is safe to say that out of the 40,000,000 inhabitants of the United Kingdom, 39,990,000 of them did not pay the slightest attention to the report ; and that, of the small portion of our people who noticed it, not one in ten believed it to be true.

The war between Japan and China, which had ended in the treaty of Shimonoseki, in April, 1895, had been one continuous campaign of victory for Japan. The immediate cause of hostilities had been a rebellion in Korea, a country in whose affairs China and Japan claimed an equal right to interfere.

But, over and above her interest in Korea, China had a long outstanding score to settle with Japan. The adoption of Western civilisation in Japan — that is to say, the abolition of feudalism, the encouragement of secular education, the establishment of representative government, the disestablishment of religion — had incensed China against her progressive neighbour, and the revolt in Korea only supphed the necessary pretext for avenging a host of treasured wrongs.

The kingdom of Korea had been from time immemorial one of a number of independent, yet quasi-tributary, states, which fenced off China Proper on all sides from the hordes of " foreign devils " who inhabited the rest of the world, and towards which China had assumed, from time to time, the position of a suzerain power. But, owing to internal dissensions in China itself, many of these quasi-tributary states had, on various occasions, declared their independence, and in recent years some of them had become the appanages of other empires.

Manchuria, the home of the Imperial dynasty, with its area of 362,310 square miles and its population of 7,500,000 ; Mongolia, covering the vast extent of 1,288,000 square miles, with a roving population of 2,000,000 ; Turkestan and Jungaria, with an area of 600,800 square miles and a sparse population of 1,180,000, were in the year 1898 practically subject to Russia, though still virtually within the Chinese Empire. China Proper stands in the same relationship towards Manchuria and Mongolia — its tributaries on the north-east and north-west — as England does to Scotland. The hardy denizens of these highlands of Eastern Asia had been accustomed to make lawless forays upon the fertile lowlands of China. The Mongols, under Jenghis Khan, conquered China in the thirteenth century, and founded a Mongol dynasty of Chinese Emperors. The Manchus subdued China in the seventeenth century, established the dynasty which still reigns at Peking, and, as a race, occupy a position of superiority over the native Chinese similar to that held by the Normans over the Saxons in England during the twelfth century.

Burmah, another of China's feudatories, with an

THE GREATNESS OF CHINA 5

area of 168,550 square miles, and a population of 9,000,000, had, at the date of the opening of this history, become incorporated with the British Empire, though still paying a decennial tribute to China ; Nepaul, with its area of 54,000 square miles and population of 4,000,000, was independent, but also paid a tribute to China, despite its close touch with India. Tibet, with an area of 651,500 square miles and a population of 6,000,000, had recently fallen to some extent under our influence, but, though independent, was still a portion of the Chinese Empire. Annam, Tonking, Cochin China, and Cambodia, comprising an area of 363,000 square miles and a population of 18,000,000, belonged to France ; and Ham Nghi, ex- Emperor of Annam, resided at Algiers on a pension of ;^i,20o a year, to be increased to ^3,200 on marriage.

Siam, with its broad area of 244,000 square miles and a population of 5,000,000, was independent, being shut off from China by the British and French colonial empires.

And lastly, Korea, with which we are most concerned at present, having an area of 82,000 square miles and a population of 12,000,000, had asserted her independence by concluding treaties, on her own initiative, with Japan in 1876, with the United States in 1882, and with Great Britain in 1883.

The areas of the quasi-tributary states mentioned amount to the huge total of 3,793,110 square miles, with a population of 64,000,000 ; while the area of the sacred soil of China Proper is 1,353,350 square miles, with a population of 400,000,000, or eleven times the area and ten times the population of the United Kingdom ; an estimate which gives to China and her vassals no less than 5,300,000 square miles of the earth's surface, and 464,000,000 of its inhabitants.

In other words, the Empire of China and its tributary states used to cover an area which exceeded that of all Europe by 1,763,377 square miles, while its population was 100,000,000 in excess of the population of Europe during the greater part of the nineteenth century.

Those figures enable us, in some measure, to realise the vastness and magnificence of Ancient China, and to understand the well-founded pride and exclusiveness of successive dynasties of Chinese Emperors and their officials. Enjoying, as they did, a civilisation which was entirely indigenous ; believing that mankind was first created in China, and at a specific date, 2,267,000 years before the time of Confucius, who lived from 551 to 475 B.C. ; tracing the corporate existence of their country back — in nebulous, but more or less intelligible, history — over that enormous period, the bare conception of which implies, in itself, a high state of civilisation ; possessing the richest lands, the greatest rivers, and the most numerous, as well as industrious, population in the whole world ; it is no wonder that the Chinese believed that China was commensurate with the world itself, and that foreigners outside the scope of celestial civilisation were merely "devils."

China proper possessed so many peculiar advantages of soil and climate, as compared with the neighbouring countries, that it was a pardonable vanity in the Chinese patriots to claim for it certain supernatural or celestial attributes. In the first place, China was a paradise enclosed by a wall of such magnitude as to constitute one of the wonders of the world. Inside this wall there are in North China 250,000 square miles of land — that is to say, an area more than double that of the British Isles — covered with a peculiar kind of earth called Hwang Too, or Yellow Earth, and which we call " loess," which is to all intents and purposes a permanent top-dressing of manure. The

COMPETITION FOR KOREA 7

Emperor of China was called Hwang Te, or Yellow Ruler, probably because he was proprietor of the loess, the most highly-prized possession of the agricultural country over which he reigns. This loess will grow crop after crop without being exhausted, and is so friable that it requires very little labour to cultivate. Besides the loess area there is the great delta plain of the Hwang Ho, or Yellow River, 700 miles in length by 150 to 500 miles wide, which consists entirely of rich alluvial soil. In addition to these special regions there are vast areas of extremely fertile, arable soil in the great level areas from the Hwang Ho to the Yangtse Kiang, and again in the immense southern region below the Yangtse. The great artificial river called the Yun Ho, or, as we call it, the Grand Canal, runs north and south for seven or eight hundred miles from Hangchow in the south to Peking in the north, through a land which used to be in the highest state of cultivation. In a country like England, where the agricultural industry has fallen into such decay, it seems hardly conceivable that purely agricultural districts in China can support, as they do, over three thousand persons to the square mile.

For several centuries the Japanese had been on terms of intimate relationship with the peninsula of Korea, which is only separated from them by the island-dotted Strait of Korea, and is practically a continuation of Japan attached to the mainland. Japan being more thickly populated than the United Kingdom, and possessing only the same area, requires room for expansion in Korea, which is thinly populated by a degenerate race, but which is nevertheless a useful country, and provides Japan with a considerable portion of her food supply. So far back as 1592 A.D., fifty years before the present Manchu dynasty began to reign in Peking, an extremely modern date in the history of China, the Japanese invaded Korea, but were defeated by a large Chinese force which came to the assistance of the Koreans. A Chinese fleet cut off the retreat of the Japanese, and Japan was compelled to sue for peace.

Five years afterwards, in 1597, the Japanese, having bided their time, once again invaded Korea, defeated the Chinese troops, destroyed the Chinese fleet, and then suddenly returned to Japan without annexing Korea.

In 1885 a convention was concluded between China and Japan, Li Hung Chang and Count Ito being the plenipotentiaries, in which it was practically acknowledged that both had equal military rights in Korea, and that neither should send troops into it without notifying the other. In the month of May in that year we occupied Port Hamilton, a port in a group of islands at the southern extremity of the Korean peninsula, on the grounds that we required a naval base north of Hong Kong, and as a countermove to the advance of Japan and Russia. But we evacuated the position in February, 1887, in consequence of an assurance given by Russia that she would not interfere with the integrity of Korea. In the interval from 1887 to 1894 the condition of Korea continued unsatisfactory. The Government, which was exceedingly corrupt, had become entirely vested in the Bin family, of which the Korean Queen was a member, and frequent insurrections took place. The people of Korea were, in fact, reduced to a condition of slavery, and the administration was only maintained in power by the co-operation of the Chinese Government, which was always ready to come to the aid of the dominant faction.

In 1894 the Bins, after their usual custom, applied for

CHINO-JAPANESE WAR 9

Chinese assistance to suppress a serious rebellion. In May that year the rebels, known as the Tong Haks, defeated the Korean troops, and on the 6th of July a Chinese brigade, consisting of 2,500 men, set out for Korea. In the notice of the despatch of the expedition, which was given to Japan, China — acting, it is alleged, under Russian inspiration — had claimed Korea as a ''tributary state" of the Chinese Empire. Japan protested that she had equal rights with China in Korea, and sensibly suggested that a joint Chino- Japanese expeditionary force should be made up to quell the disturbance ; and that when peace had been restored a joint commission of investigation should decide as to the administrative reforms necessary to ensure lasting tranquillity.

The Empress-Dowager of China, of whom much will of necessity be written in this history, sympathised with the family of the Queen of Korea ; and, hating Japan, as s"a pervert from Oriental civilisation, and no better than a "foreign devil," the Chinese autocrat rejected the Mikado's honourable proposal. Five thousand Japanese troops were immediately landed at Seoul, the capital of Korea. China, on her part, despatched reinforcements of troops to assert her sovereignty by sea and land. Three Chinese men-of-war, convoying a transport with 1,200 troops on board, encountered three Japanese cruisers, and a naval battle took place, in which the Chinese were utterly defeated, one of their men-of-war being captured, the second wrecked, the third disabled and put to flight, and the transport sunk, having refused to surrender. This naval victory, which occurred on July 25, 1894, was followed up by several triumphs over the Chinese troops on land, notably those at Ya-shan and Phyongyang. On September 17th a great naval battle was fought at the mouth of the Yalu River, in which five lo THE COMING POWER

Chinese ships were sunk and the remainder put to flight. The Japanese then captured the powerful fortified naval stations of Talien-wan (Dalny), Lushun-kow (Port Arthur), and Wei-hai-wei. At Wei-hai-wei a decisive naval battle was fought, in which three of the largest Chinese vessels having been sunk, and all their torpedo-boats captured or destroyed, the rest of the Chinese fleet surrendered, and its commander. Admiral Ting, committed suicide. The entire Liao-Tong peninsula, where so much of the fighting in the Russo-Japanese war has taken place, was then occupied by the Japanese. Kaiping was captured by General Nogi ; old Niuchwang by General Nodzu ; Port Arthur by General Oyama — soldiers of whom much will be written in succeeding chapters.

The Chinese sued for peace, and the treaty of Shimonoseki was concluded on April 17, 1895, by Li Hung Chang and Marquis Ito.

The provisions of this treaty were : —

1. China acknowledged the complete independence of Korea.

2. China ceded the following territory to Japan : (a) the Liao-Tong peninsula from the mouth of the Liao River ; (6) the island of Formosa and the Pescadores.

3. China agreed to pay an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels (;£3o,ooo,ooo) to Japan.

4. China consented to che occupation of Wei-hai-wei by Japan, until the indemnity should have been paid.

If the Japanese victory of 1 894-1 895 had taken place in the eighteenth, or in the early part of the nineteenth century, it would have resulted in the substitution of the Mikado for the ruling Manchu Emperor in Peking, just as the Manchus themselves had usurped the place of the Ming dynasty in the seventeenth century, and as the founder of the Mings — a Chinese labouring man —