“While this foreign town is growing outside, the Chinese Government buildings inside the city of Liao-yang are being rapidly evacuated, in many cases the only vestige of the Russian occupation being a solitary sentry keeping guard over the property. Russian troops are also being withdrawn from Liao-yang and conveyed by rail to Port Arthur.” A more direct testimony came from the Russian diplomats, probably M. Lessar himself, who, even so late as at the beginning of September, 1903, or a month before the end of the stipulated period for the complete evacuation of Manchuria, intimated to Prince Ching that the reason for the delay of the actual evacuation was “that the barracks for the railway guards were not ready.”—_China, No. 2 (1904)_, No. 156. Footnote 438: The _Novoe Vremya_ itself declared toward the end of the year 1902 that, contrary to the popular notion that Russia was evacuating Manchuria, she was just beginning to consolidate her influence in that region. As regards the number of the Russian troops left in Manchuria after the first period of evacuation, we have the following authoritative statement by Count Cassini, Russian Ambassador to the United States: “Faithfully adhering to the terms of her treaty with China respecting Manchuria, she [Russia] had withdrawn the major portion of her troops from that province until _between 60,000 and 70,000_ only remained.”—The _North American Review_ for May, 1904, pp. 682–683. It is not clear whether this number included the Russian soldiers stationed outside of the Chinese quarters. Footnote 439: See pp. 144–145, above. Footnote 440: _China, No. 2 (1904)_, pp. 38 and 42. Footnote 441: _Ibid._, Nos. 72, 74, 75, 111, 112. Footnote 442: _Ibid._, Nos. 131, 132. Footnote 443: _Ibid._, Nos. 70, 122, 130, 131. Footnote 444: The _Kokumin_, May 30, 1904; a Peking correspondence. Also see _China, No. 2 (1904)_, Nos. 44, 46–48, 69, 73, 96, 99, 102, 105, 124. CHAPTER XV DEMANDS IN SEVEN ARTICLES