The German population in Kiau-Chau, exclusive of troops, was only about 2,100 in 1913, but the peninsula was strongly garrisoned. The Chinese population centred about Tsingtau and amounted to nearly 54,000. Immediately after their occupation of the Shantung province the Germans entered into negotiations (which were probably conducted in the usual Prussian way) with the Chinese authorities, and a concession was granted for the continuation of the Shantung railway to a junction with the great cross-country railway Pekin-Hankau, the German object being of course to establish a direct Kiau-Chau-Pekin trade. In 1914 a new service of steamships via the Suez Canal from Hamburg to the American Pacific coast was inaugurated, and the liners calling at Tsingtau, in order to carry goods to the United States and Canada without reshipment, provided a fortnightly service for Tsingtau. A German writer says: "The mountainous neighbourhood of Tsingtau is, thanks to German afforestation, beginning to get a different character. Where formerly only rough open country was to be seen, timber and orchards are filling the slopes. The Chinese _work voluntarily_ for the Government, and receive payment in seeds, shrubs, and trees for their own property." The Germans made every effort for the germanisation of Shantung, and schools were established where science and technical science were taught; and the students, according to the same writer, "first learned German and in this way became messengers of German civilisation all over China," for which blessing China has not, seemingly, exhibited any marked degree of gratitude. Kiau-Chau and Tsingtau were fortified and made as impregnable fortresses as modern science could construct, and all German proceedings indicated that any "ultimate retrocession to China" of the province was extremely problematical. The outbreak of the war of 1914 gave Japan an opportunity of paying off to Germany both the capital and accumulated interest of the score she had held to Germany's debit ever since the latter's unwarrantable intrusion into her sphere. The capital consisted of an announcement in the early stages of the war of Japan's intention to take action to protect the general interests in the Far East, "keeping especially in view the independence and integrity of China," and in the delivery on the 15th August of an ultimatum to Germany. The interest was provided by the ultimatum being couched in almost identical terms with Germany's ultimatum to Japan sixteen years previously. The following is the text of the ultimatum: "We consider it highly important and necessary in the present situation to take measures to remove the causes of all disturbance of peace in the Far East, and to safeguard general interests as contemplated in the agreement between Japan and Great Britain.