3-086-079 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Chinese Question: British officers viewing a dismounted gun after the action at Wei-Hai-Wei, 1895, (1898). Photograph by Mr. James Fuller, R. N. '[Illustration] rendered interesting by the international importance of the present scramble for Chinese ports...Wei-Hai-Wei, the naval stronghold on the Shangtung promontory, which has been leased to Great Britain by the Chinese Government, has in the past been considered one of China's two most valuable naval stations; the other being Russia's newly acquired base of operations, Port Arthur. These two ports practically divide the command of the Gulf of Pechili, hence the importance - but little inferior to Russia's late advantage - of the station now formally leased to Great Britain by the Tsung-li-Yamen, or Chinese Imperial Chancery and Foreign Office'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.