ia. This railway had to be carried along the
northern bank of the Amur where engineering and economic difficulties
abound. Moreover, the river makes a huge semicircular sweep
northward, and a railway following its northern bank to Vladivostok
must make the same detour. If, on the contrary, the road could be
carried south of the river along the diameter of the semicircle, it
would be a straight, and therefore a shorter, line, technically
easier and economically better. To follow this diameter, however,
would involve passing through Chinese territory, namely, Manchuria,
and an excuse for soliciting China's permission was not in sight. In
1894, however, war broke out between Japan and China, and in its
sequel Japan passed into possession of the southern littoral of
Manchuria, which meant that Russia could never get nearer to the
Pacific than Vladivostok, unless she swept Japan from her path. It is
here, doubtless, that we must find Russia's true motive in inducing
Germany and France to unite with her for the purpose of ousting Japan
from Manchuria. The "notice to quit" gave for reasons that the tenure
of the Manchurian littoral by Japan would menace the security of the
Chinese capital, would render the independence of Korea illusory, and
would constitute an obstacle to the peace of the Orient. Only one
saving clause offered for Japan--to obtain from China a guarantee
that no portion of Manchuria should thereafter be leased or ceded to
a foreign State. But France warned the Tokyo Government that to press
for such a guarantee would offend Russia, and Russia declared that,
for her part, she entertained no design of trespassing in Manchuria.
Thus, Japan had no choice but to surrender quietly the main fruits of
her victory. She did so, and proceeded to double her army and treble
her navy.

RUSSIA'S AND GERMANY'S REWARDS

As a recompense for the assistance nominally rendered to China in the
above matter, Russia obtained permission in Peking to divert her
trans-Asian railway from the huge bend of the Amur to the straight
line through Manchuria. Neither Germany nor France received any
immediate compensation. But three years later, by way of indemnity
for the murder of two missionaries by a Chinese mob, Germany seized a
portion of the province of Shantung, and forthwith Russia obtained a
lease of the Liaotung peninsula, from which she had driven Japan in
1895. This act she followed by extorting from China permission to
construct