[312]. The 56th Congress, 2d Session, Home Documents, vol. i. p. 355.
[313]. The italics are the author’s.
[314]. China, No. 5 (1900), No. 5.
[315]. Also see the debate in the House of Lords, on August 6, 1901, between Earl Spencer and the Marquess of Lansdowne. The Parliamentary Debates, Fourth Series, vol. 98, pp. 1351–1365.
[316]. At the House of Lords, on August 6, 1901. The Japanese Government, also, in its reply to a question of a member of the National Diet, interpreted the Agreement to apply to the whole of the Chinese Empire.—Tokushu Jōyaku, p. 389.
[317]. At the Reichstag on March 15, 1901.—The London Times, August 6, 1901, p. 7. He is also said to have declared to the Russian Representative at Berlin that Manchuria was outside of the sphere of German commercial rights, and consequently had no relation with the Anglo-German Agreement. It was reported even that Manchuria was originally mentioned specifically in the British draft of the Agreement, but the word was struck out at the request of Germany, and the more abstract phrase, “spheres of influence,” was used therefor.—Tokushu Jōyaku, pp. 388–389.
[318]. The Court had fled toward Ta-yuen-Fu before the allied troops reached Peking, and thence started toward Si-ngan-Fu, the capital of many a historic dynasty, on October 1.
[319]. Russia had early advocated accepting Li as plenipotentiary, while other Powers were still skeptical of the nature of his credentials. See China, No. 1 (1901), Nos. 254, 356, 368, 371, 398, 401; China, No. 5 (1901), Nos. 5, 31, 111, 112, 128, 216; U. S. 56th Congress, 2d Session, House Documents, vol. i. pp. 203–204, 305–306, 381–382. It was not till September 20 that Li entered Peking. Prince Ching had arrived there September 3. The appointment of the Prince as a plenipotentiary is said to have been partly due to Japanese influence.
[320]. Documents diplomatiques: Chine, 1899–1900, No. 327 (p. 174). Also see China, No. 5 (1901), pp. 5, 46, 53–54.
[321]. China, No. 5 (1901), No. 17.