But even then war might have been averted, for the spirit of revenge would have faded away in the multitude of other interests and sentiments that have been pressing upon Japan’s attention within the past decade. Indeed, during the Boxer troubles of 1900 and 1901 in China, when the troops of Japan were marching, in company with those of Russia, Germany, France, Great Britain, the United States, _et al._, to the relief of the beleaguered foreigners in Peking, it almost seemed like a harbinger of continued peace in the Far East. But this harmony was only apparent, not real,—only temporary, not permanent. In fact, it was that very campaign which enabled Russia to complete her practical possession of Manchuria. She had, in the meantime, obtained from China a lease of that very territory which she had forced Japan to give up. She had also obtained permission from China to extend the Siberian Railway through Manchuria to Port Arthur and Dalny, and thus obtain an outlet to the Pacific Ocean. Measures of material expansion might not have alarmed Japan, if it had not been that Russia sought to obtain permanent possession of Manchuria through a military occupation ostensibly for the purpose of protecting her commercial interests. She marched her troops in large numbers into Manchuria in order to protect the railway from the depredations of Chinese bandits; she fortified Port Arthur and built up Dalny, the great “fiat city,” and in every way showed no intention of letting Manchuria slip out of her control. All such acts did not tend to allay the spirit of revenge in the hearts of the Japanese, but of course made them more and more indignant. Nor was this all. Russia began to show most evident signs of encroaching upon Korea. “Japan watched all these things with profound anxiety. If there were any reality in the dangers which Russia, Germany, and France had declared to be incidental to Japanese occupation of part of Manchuria, the same dangers must be doubly incidental to Russian occupation of the whole of Manchuria; the independence of Korea would become illusory ...; an obstacle would be created to the permanent peace of the East.”[187] If Russia succeeded in maintaining her position in Manchuria, her next step would take her into Korea, for whose safety and independence there would be no guarantee; and still another step would bring her over against Japan. Thus would be endangered, not only the influence of Japan on the continent, but even her very existence. She would sink at least into the position of a third-rate power, and would be completely isolated from all opportunities for expansion.