Russian influence was therefore, at the beginning of the year 1897, absolutely preponderant in Korea as well as in China. In both countries the Tsar’s Government had played, with extraordinary ability, the part of protector of the conquered against the abuses of the conqueror, and also that of a redresser of wrongs, whereby it won universal approbation throughout the Far East. The Japanese victories now appeared only to have been obtained for the benefit of Russia, who substituted herself everywhere for Japan, in Manchuria as well as in Korea, and thus profited very considerably by the War without having to pay any of its expenses. If at its close Russia had the discretion to perceive the advantages which she might derive from intervention, and if she acted with energy and decision, she also knew how to curb the impetuosity of her admirals, who were eager to commit those very faults into which Japan had fallen, which undoubtedly would have brought about very serious European complications. She therefore at first abstained from annexing the peninsula of Liao-tung and the important stations of Port Arthur and Talien-wan, which she had compelled the Japanese to evacuate, and officially she made no annexations in Korea; but, possessing the right to construct a railway through Central Manchuria and to protect its works by her own troops, and being at one and the same time mistress of the situation at Seoul, Russia was able at the right moment to annex either Korea or Liao-tung, and bring the Trans-Siberian to the open sea through one or the other of these two peninsulas. She hesitated as to which she should select; the first was nearer Peking, the second brought her more directly to the Pacific, whence she could menace simultaneously the mouth of the Yang-tsze and the South-east of Japan. At St Petersburg, however, it seemed that the Government was waiting for the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was proceeding in hot haste, and which it was expected would reach the Amur in the first months of 1900, ere the psychological moment should arrive to strike a decisive blow. Side by side with immense advantages acquired by Russia, those obtained by her allies seemed insignificant. Germany had not shown herself exacting; all she asked was a few acres of land at Tien-tsin and other naval ports where she might establish independent concessions intended to satisfy her sense of dignity. The absence of special concessions had not hitherto prevented Germany from achieving an extraordinary commercial success in China, but the future will prove that the German Empire entertains great designs in the Far East, the realization of which are merely postponed.