[595]. The British Parliamentary Papers: China, No. 1 (1898), Nos. 100 and 109.
[596]. N.-R., Nos. 8, 11.
[597]. N.-R., Nos. 10, 11.
[598]. Ibid., No. 14, September 7.
[599]. N.-R., No. 17.
[600]. The Russian Government explained later, in the note delivered on January 6, 1904, that the creation of a neutral zone was “for the very purpose which the Imperial Japanese Government had likewise in view, namely, ‘to eliminate everything that might lead to misunderstandings in the future;’ a similar zone, for example, existed between the Russian and British possessions in Central Asia.”—N.-R., No. 38.
It is easy to see, however, that neutralization is merely common appropriation in a negative form, and might, like cases of the latter, as in Primorsk and Sakhalien, result in absorption by one of the two Powers between which the territory was neutralized.
[601]. N.-R., No. 20.
[602]. Before August 13, when he was appointed Viceroy of the Far East, Alexieff was as yet Governor-General of the Kwan-tung region.
[603]. The Japanese dailies.