ated
declarations of disinterestedness and love of peace, decline to discuss
the subject. It consented, therefore, to an exchange of views, but in
order to ensure that the tightening of its hold on the territories in
question should proceed pari passu with the diplomatic action, it made
an extraordinary departure from ordinary procedure, entrusting the
conduct of the affair, not to Count Lamsdorff and the Foreign Office,
but to Admiral Alexeyef, the newly created Viceroy of the Far East,
in whom was vested the control of all civil, military, naval, and
diplomatic affairs relating to that part of the world.

From the commencement of the negotiations, which lasted from August
12th, 1903, to February 6th, 1904, the irreconcilable differences of the
two rivals became apparent, and all through the correspondence, in
which a few apparent concessions were offered by Japan, neither Power
retreated a step from the positions originally taken up. What Japan
suggested was, roughly speaking, a mutual engagement to uphold the
independence and integrity of the Chinese and Korean empires, and at the
same time a bilateral arrangement by which the special interests of the
two contracting parties in Manchuria and in Korea should be formally
recognised, and the means of protecting them clearly defined. The scheme
did not commend itself to the Russians. They systematically ignored the
interests of Japan in Manchuria, and maintained that she had no right
to interfere in any arrangements they might think fit to make with the
Chinese Government with regard to that province. In their opinion, Japan
ought to recognise formally that Manchuria lay outside her sphere
of interest, and the negotiations should be confined to limiting her
freedom of action in Korea.

With such a wide divergence in principle the two parties were not likely
to agree in matters of detail. Their conflicting aims came out most
clearly in the question of the open door. The Japanese insisted on
obtaining the privileges of the open door, including the right of
settlement in Manchuria, and Russia obstinately refused. Having marked
out Manchuria as a close reserve for her own colonisation, trade, and
industry, and knowing that she could not compete with the Japanese if
they were freely admitted, she could not adopt the principle of "equal
opportunity" which her rivals recommended. A fidus achates of Admiral
Alexeyef explained to me quite frankly, during the negotiations, why no