even after the evacuation, if an evacuation were possible, the numbers and the stations of the Chinese troops, upon whom the duty of protecting the rapidly increasing Russian subjects and properties in Manchuria would devolve, should always be made known to Russia, so that unnecessarily large forces should not be stationed. Russia would judge whether the Chinese forces were excessive, and exert her influence to keep them in reduced numbers,[419] while, at the same time, their capacity as well for receiving the banditti into their ranks as for affording protection to the Russian life and property would, to say the least, soon reach its limits. Thus the explicit terms of the Convention were constructed so as to be greatly neutralized, as it would seem, by what was implied and could only be inferred by analysis. In the light of these considerations may be seen the statement that, “undoubtedly, if the Chinese Government, in spite of their positive assurances, should, on any pretext, violate the above conditions [i. e., of the Convention], the Imperial Government would no longer consider itself bound by the provisions of the Manchurian Agreement, nor by its declarations on this subject, and would have to decline to take the responsibility for all the consequences which might ensue,”[420]—a reservation which Count Lamsdorff considered “a very necessary one.”[421] In the same light, also, one may read the statement made by Sir Ernest Satow to Prince Ching, that “the Convention did not appear to His Majesty’s Government to be entirely satisfactory,”[422] and also the pungent remark of Lord Lansdowne to M. de Staal, that there were several points in the Agreement which had caused much criticism in England, particularly those provisions which limited China’s right to dispose of her own military forces and to construct railway extensions within her own territory. “I did not, however,” adds the Marquess, “desire to examine these provisions too microscopically, and I shared his [M. de Staal’s] hope that the Agreement would be loyally and considerately interpreted on both sides, and that the evacuation of the province would be completed within the appointed time.”[423]