3-085-633 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Chinese Crisis: entrance to Port Arthur, occupied by the Russian Squadron, 1898. 'The scramble for the ports of Northern China goes on apace, and the plot of the political situation in the Far East thickens day by day...By what is now proved to have been a tacit understanding with Germany, Russia has followed suit and occupied Port Arthur, a strong naval position on the promontory of the Manchurian Peninsula, commanding the Gulf of Pechili, with the maritime approach to Tientsin and Peking...A Russian loan, the details of which have yet to be arranged, is apparently to work wonders in Russian interests, while negotiations for a British loan are again in the air. Russian drill-instructors are to replace the military experts lately provided by the Kaiser; Russian rifles are to be placed at the disposal of the Government on terms of deferred payment; and British engineers are to be superseded by Russians on the Chinese railways'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.