Negotiations lagged, China probably declining to sign under the remonstrances of Great Britain, the United States, and Japan. On March 2, Prince Ching showed Mr. Conger a draft of his new counter-proposals, which Japan was said to have wholly, and Great Britain in the main, approved.[395] These proposals are interesting for their practical identity, save a slight difference,[396] with the final Russo-Chinese Convention of April 8, 1902, which will be fully treated in a subsequent chapter. This fact is a conclusive evidence that after March, Russia suddenly accepted nearly all of the counter-proposals made by China. This abrupt condescension on the part of Russia is supposed to have been partly due to an important event which had recently taken place in the diplomatic world—the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Agreement signed at London on January 30, 1902, and simultaneously announced in Parliament and the Imperial Diet of Tokio on February 12.
_China, No. 2 (1904)_, No. 40. In No. 42 (August 21), Sir Ernest gives, in three parallel columns, the original terms proposed by Russia in February, the alterations of March, and the proposals now made in August. The last two are nearly identical.
_China, No. 2 (1904)_, No. 41 (August 16).
See Mayers, pp. 283–318; or the Blue Book, _Treaty Series_, No. 17, 1902; _Final Protocol between the Foreign Powers and China for the Resumption of Friendly Relations_.
See the summary of Li’s highly interesting letter of September 30, which has just appeared in the London _Times_ for October 12, 1904, p. 6.
_Tokushu Jōyaku_, pp. 266–267; The _Kokumin_, November 2, pp. 23, 30, 190–191.
The U. S. 57th Congress, 2d Session, _House Documents_, vol. i. p. 272.
The U. S. 57th Congress, 2d Session, _House Documents_, vol. i. p. 271. Compare a version in _Tokushu Jōyaku_, pp. 266–267.
The U. S. 57th Congress, 2d Session, _House Documents_, vol. i. p. 272.
The U. S. 57th Congress, 2d Session, _House Documents_, vol. i. pp. 273–274.
The U. S. 57th Congress, 2d Session, _House Documents_, vol. i. pp. 926–928.
The italics in the quotation are the author’s.
Observe how powerfully Russia applies this argument. On February 4, M. Lessar said that Russia was merely asking privileges in Manchuria similar to those granted to Germany in Shan-tung.—The U. S. 57th Congress, 2d Session, _House Documents_, vol. i. p. 274. Russia, if she would, could with a certain amount of impunity inquire of Great Britain and other Powers how it was that they allowed Germany to acquire her apparently exclusive rights in Shan-tung, and now objected to Russia’s following her example only on a larger scale.