Early in December, 1901, the American Minister to China, Mr. Conger, reported to Secretary Hay, at Washington, an impending treaty which Russia seemed likely to force on the Chinese Government, which would practically secure to that aggressive Power, through a prolonged agreement of China with the Russo-Chinese Bank, exclusive railway and mining concessions in Manchuria, and which would protract the Russian evacuation of that country through three years. England and Japan were using all their influence at Peking to prevent the signing of the treaty, and Mr. Hay entered a vigorous protest on the part of the Government of the United States, "animated now, as heretofore, by the sincere desire to insure to the whole world full and fair intercourse with China on equal footing." The pressure from Russia on China was so potent, however, that Mr. Conger, on the 29th of January, 1902, reported to Mr. Hay that Prince Ch’ing, who acted with authority from his Government in the negotiation with Russia, had informed him "that the latter has done the best he could and has held out as long as possible, but that Russian possession of Manchuria has become intolerable, and that China must at once sign the convention or lose everything; that he has therefore agreed to sign the convention [modified in some particulars] and will also sign the separate agreement with the Russo-Chinese Bank, which practically gives exclusive privileges of industrial development in Manchuria." Nevertheless the consummation of the Russian project of coercive diplomacy was delayed until the 8th of April, and the terms of the treaty then signed were considerably moderated from the original design. Its provisions of interest to others than the contracting parties were as follows: "ARTICLE I. His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, desiring to give a fresh proof of his love of peace and his sentiments of friendship for His Majesty the Emperor of China, notwithstanding the fact that the first attacks upon the peaceable Russian population were made from various points of Manchuria, which is situated on the frontier, consents to the reestablishment of the authority of the Chinese Government in the aforesaid province, which remains an integral part of the Empire of China, and restores to the Chinese Government the right to exercise governmental and administrative powers there as before its occupation by the Russian troops.