y to seize Formosa.

By the second article China ceded to Japan the fortress and dockyard of
Port Arthur and the Liao-tung Peninsula. As soon as the terms of the treaty
were published, Russia, which was the northern neighbour of China along the
borders of Manchuria and Mongolia, and the neighbour of Japan by the
possession of Vladivostock and Saghalien, protested against the cession of
Port Arthur and its territory to the victors, arguing that the permanent
occupation of Port Arthur by a foreign Power would be a standing menace to
the Government at Pekin, and would put an end to the independence of China.
Germany and France joined in the Russian protest, and the three Powers
began to move their ships eastward. Their combined squadrons would have
been more than a match for Admiral Ito's cruisers. England had a powerful
squadron in the Eastern seas, but observed a strict neutrality in the
diplomatic strife.

If England had joined her, Japan would undoubtedly have fought rather than
yield up the fruit of her hard-won victories. But the Mikado's Ministers
realized that single-handed they could not face a Triple Alliance of
aggressive European Powers. The treaty was revised, the cession of Port
Arthur and its territory being struck out of it. They were to be restored
to China.

But the statesmen of Japan, while they yielded the point, recognized in
Russia their future rival for the empire of the East, and resolved to begin
at once preparing for a struggle in years to come which would give them
back more than they were now forced to abandon. They set to work to create
a powerful navy, and at the same time added steadily to the fighting
strength of their army, which for a while found useful war training in the
subjugation of the hill tribes of Formosa. The millions of the war
indemnity and loans negotiated abroad were expended on a great scheme of
armaments. A fleet of battleships, cruisers, and torpedo craft was built in
foreign shipyards, and the personnel of the navy was increased to provide
officers and crews. The Japanese Government went on for years patiently
preparing, regardless of conduct on the part of Russia that might have
tempted a less self-possessed Power to premature action.

The Russian Government had hardly forced Japan to abandon so large a part
of her conquests when it took advantage of the weakness of China to obtain
from the Pekin Government the right to make a railway through Manchuria to
the treaty p