3-085-598 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The German cruiser "Deutschland," bound for Chinese Waters under Prince Henry of Prussia, 1898. 'Few events of recent history...appear more remarkable than the present or impending unopposed seizure of its chief naval ports and arsenals on the Yellow Sea by several of the European Powers, with the early prospect that its north-eastern maritime provinces, the region of the Manchu Tartars...will speedily be annexed to the Russian Empire. This utter breakdown of defensive strength in the...Chinese monarchy is the consequence, hitherto delayed only to suit the convenience, perhaps, of two great foreign Powers, Germany and Russia, of the crushing defeat, by land and sea, which was inflicted on China in the Japanese War not very long ago...Germany has seized upon Kiao-Chau, a port on the coast of the Yellow Sea, directly opposite Corea, with some adjacent territory, including a good coalfield, in the province of Shantung; Russia has occupied Port Arthur, on the promontory of the Manchurian Peninsula, commanding the entrance to the Gulf of Pechili, with the maritime approach to Tientsin and Pekin...The existing customary method and distribution of British trade with China is not, we believe, directly affected by these changes at the northern ports'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.