xclusive use, as she was fully entitled to
do, she sought and obtained from China a pledge to open to foreign
trade sixteen places within these zones.

For the rest, however, the inconsistency between the past and the
present, though existing throughout the whole of China, was nowhere
so conspicuous as in the three eastern provinces (Manchuria); not
because there was any real difference of degree, but because
Manchuria had been the scene of the greatest war of modern times;
because that war had been fought by Japan in the cause of the new
policy, and because the principles of the equally open door and of
China's integrity had been the main bases of the Portsmouth treaty,
of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and of the subsequently concluded
ententes with France and Russia. In short, the world's eyes were
fixed on Manchuria and diverted from China proper, so that every act
of Japan was subjected to an exceptionally rigorous scrutiny, and the
nations behaved as though they expected her to live up to a standard
of almost ideal altitude. China's mood, too, greatly complicated the
situation. She had the choice between two moderate and natural
courses; either to wait quietly until the various concessions granted
by her to foreign powers in the evil past should lapse by maturity,
or to qualify herself by earnest reforms and industrious developments
for their earlier recovery. Nominally she adopted the latter course,
but in reality she fell into a mood of much impatience. Under the
name of a "rights-recovery campaign" her people began to protest
vehemently against the continuance of any conditions which impaired
her sovereignty, and as this temper coloured her attitude towards the
various questions which inevitably grew out of the situation in
Manchuria, her relations with Japan became somewhat strained in the
early part of 1909.

JAPAN IN KOREA AFTER THE WAR WITH RUSSIA

Having waged two wars on account of Korea, Japan emerged from the
second conflict with the conviction that the policy of maintaining
the independence of that country must be modified, and that since the
identity of Korean and Japanese interests in the Far East and the
paramount character of Japanese interests in Korea would not permit
Japan to leave Korea to the care of any third power, she must assume
the charge herself. Europe and America also recognized that view of
the situation, and consented to withdraw their legations from Seoul,
thus leaving the control