The Russo-Japanese Conflict: Its Causes and IssuesAsakawa, Kan'ichi
History
The Russo-Japanese Conflict: Its Causes and Issues
Asakawa, Kan'ichi
Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905; Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905 -- Causes
between Niu-chwang and the Yalu, but the construction of the railways
should not be made a ground for securing territory (Article 8). Sir
Claude Macdonald presented also, on June 14, what he believed to be an
authentic version of the Special Russo-Chinese Agreement concluded on
April 25 (May 7), 1898, to supplement the Agreement of March 15.[249] It
defined the extent of the leased territory, and of the neutral territory
to the north of the former (Articles 1 and 2).[250] Within the latter,
it was agreed, no ports should be open to the trade of other nations,
and no economic concessions made to them, without Russian consent
(Article 5). At Kin-chow, the administration and police were to be
Chinese, but the military, Russian (Article 4). Regarding railways, it
was provided that Port Arthur and Talien-wan should be the termini of
the conceded line, along which no railway privileges should be given to
other nations. Russia would, however, have nothing to say if China
herself should undertake to construct a railway from Shan-hai-kwan to a
point near the Russian line (Article 3).
These agreements were accompanied by some characteristically pacific and
magnanimous utterances by the Czar, professing his firm friendship with
China, extolling the wise decision of the Son of Heaven in granting the
lease, and emphasizing that the direct communication by means of the
great Siberian Railway with the hitherto closed-up country would largely
contribute to the peaceful intercourse of the peoples of the East and
West, to which task Russia was called by Divine Providence.[251]
The leased territory was named Kwan-tung[252] by the Russians, and the
Provisional Regulations for its administration were published at St.
Petersburg through the _Bulletin des Lois_ of August 20 (September 1),
1899.[253] By these regulations, the Kwan-tung region was placed under
the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, with its chief seat of
administration at Port Arthur (Articles 4 and 6). The Administration was
headed by a Governor, appointed and removed at the immediate will of the
Czar, who was also Commander-in-Chief of the army forces of the
territory and entered into immediate communication with the commander of
the cis-Amur region, and in addition commanded the navy at Port Arthur
and Vladivostok; the latter port, however, retained its Commander of the
port, who was subservient to the Governor (Articles 3, 7, 12, 13, and
14). In matters concerning frontier and foreign relations, the Governor
directly communicated with the Russian Representatives at Peking, Tokio,
and Seul, and with the Russian military and naval agents (Article 22).
At the creation on August 13, 1903, of a Vice-regency in this region,
which will receive attention later, it became necessary to make some
changes in the administrative rules, which had not been completed at the
outbreak of the present war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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