that longer occupation was intolerable; that they must be got out, and that the only way left for China to accomplish this was to make the best possible terms. The only terms that Russia would consent to were the signing of both the Convention and the Russo-Chinese Bank Agreement.”[390] [Illustration: LI HUNG-CHANG ] It is unnecessary to say that against the Russian demands Great Britain, Japan, and the United States had separately and more than once entered firm protests at Peking. The conduct of the first two Powers, however, is not shown in the published documents. Secretary Hay reminded the Russian and Chinese Governments, on February 3, of the repeated assurances made by the Czar’s Foreign Minister of his devotion to the principle of the open door in all parts of China, and said: “An agreement whereby China gives any corporation or company the exclusive right or privilege of opening mines, establishing railroads, or in any other way industrially developing Manchuria, can but be viewed with the greatest concern by the Government of the United States. It constitutes a monopoly, which is a distinct breach of the stipulations of the treaties concluded between China and foreign Powers, and thereby seriously affects the rights of American citizens.”[391] To this note, the interesting reply of Count Lamsdorff, signed by himself, was: “... It [the Russian Government] feels itself bound ... to declare that negotiations carried on between two entirely independent States are not subject to be submitted to the approval of other Powers. There is no thought of attacking the principle of the ‘open door’ _as that principle is understood by the Imperial Government of Russia_,[392] and Russia has no intention whatever to change _the policy followed by her in that respect up to the present time_. If the Russo-Chinese Bank should obtain concessions in China, the agreements of a private character relating to them would not differ from those heretofore concluded by so many other foreign corporations.[393] But would it not be very strange if the ‘door’ that is ‘open’ to certain nations should be closed to Russia, whose frontier adjoins that of Manchuria, and who has been forced by recent events to send her troops into that province to reëstablish order in the plain and common interest of all nations?... It is impossible to deny to an independent State the right to grant to others such concessions as it is free to dispose of, and I have every reason to believe that the demands of the Russo-Chinese Bank do not in the least exceed those that have been so often formulated by other foreign companies, and I feel that under the circumstances it would not be easy for the Imperial Government to deny to the Russian companies that support which is given by other Governments to companies and syndicates of their own nationalities. At all events, I beg your Excellency to believe that there is not, nor can there be, any question of the