3-085-644 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Chinese Crisis: Port Arthur, occupied by the Russian Fleet: view of the town from the west, 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... Germany remains in possession of the valuable Yellow Sea port of Kiao-Chau...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...Russia has not been merely content with establishing a fleet in convenient winter quarters on the Chinese coast, but has since secured the more northerly port of Kin-Chau, on the other side of the peninsula. The German Government announces its resolution to retain, by definite arrangement with China, the territory which it has occupied around Kiao-Chau, in the interests of German commerce, unless another port and coaling-station of equally desirable position is substituted for Kiao-Chau; but although China does not seem able or, indeed, anxious to resist the claims of Germany, her Government evidently desires to give far more favourable terms to Russia'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.