increased.[285] It was on August 14, the day when the allied forces had almost reached Peking, that General Groderkoff in command of the northern army of the Manchurian invasion wrote to the Minister of War at St. Petersburg: “Fifty years ago Nevelskoy raised the Russian flag at the mouth of the Amur, on its right bank, and laid the foundation for our possessions on that great river. Now, after hard fighting, we have taken possession of the right bank, thus consolidating the great enterprise of annexing the whole of the Amur to Russia’s dominions, and making that river an internal waterway and not a frontier stream, whereby free and unmolested navigation of that artery through one of the vastest regions of the Empire has been secured.” Indeed, by the time when the Peking Legations were relieved, the major part of Manchuria had been reduced under a military occupation by Russia.[286] This may be said to mark a new stage in the development of the Manchurian question, for no longer was this vast territory a mere sphere of Russian influence; it was a prize of conquest.[287] The problem for the Government of the Czar henceforth seemed to the outside world to be not so much how it might tighten its hold upon Manchuria, as how it might convert the temporary occupation into a permanent possession. [Illustration: COUNT LAMSDORFF _Russian Foreign Minister_ ] ----- Footnote 263: It may reasonably be said that the meaning of the intervention of Russia, France, and Germany, in 1895, in regard to Japan’s claim upon the Liao-tung Peninsula may be gathered, in a retroactive way, from Russia’s conduct in Manchuria since 1896. At any rate, M. Pavloff declared, in October, 1897, that “the Russian Government intended that the provinces of China bordering on the Russian frontier must not come under the influence of any nation except Russia.”—_China, No. 1 (1898)_, p. 6. This declaration throws light not only on the trans-Manchurian railway concessions and the lease of ports, but also on Russia’s action respecting the Northern Railway extension and the consequent Anglo-Russian agreement of April, 1899. In May, 1898, there were already 200 Russian soldiers in Kirin, and in December, 2000 in Port Arthur and Talien-wan, while many Cossacks guarded railway construction, and many barracks were being hurriedly built, so that there were sufficient indications even before 1900 that Russia regarded Manchuria as her sphere of influence. Footnote 264: May 29.—_China, No. 3 (1900)_, No. 5. Footnote 265: Cf. _China, No. 4 (1900)_, No. 1 (June 5). Footnote 266: _China, No. 3 (1900)_, No. 94; _No. 4 (1900)_, No. 1 (June 8). Footnote 267: _China, No. 3 (1900)_, No. 219 (June 16–26). Footnote 268: _Ibid._, No. 133; _No. 4 (1900)_, No. 2 (evening, June 13). Footnote 269: _China, No. 3 (1900)_, No. 122 (June 13). Footnote 270: _Ibid._, Nos. 132, 148, 157, and 186 (June 17). Footnote 271: _Ibid._, No. 157.