g.

Kiao-chau was under the administration of the German admiralty. The
German fleet seized it in 1897 ostensibly to secure reparation for the
murder of two German missionaries in Shantung. The ninety-nine-year
lease subsequently arranged gave Germany the right to fortify the new
concession, and the thoroughness with which this privilege was
exercised was proved by the stout resistance the garrison was able to
make against far superior forces of besiegers. The whole concession
occupied 117 square miles.

Although Kiao-chau was the kaiser's only continental colony in Asia
the outbreak of the war found Germany in possession of several islands
and groups of islands in the Pacific. These included German New
Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Caroline, Pelew Marrana, Solomon
and Marshall Islands and a portion of the Samoan group. But the
strongly fortified port on the Shantung Peninsula was the naval base
for the protection of all these ocean possessions; and the Japanese
statesmen rightly concluded that with Tsing-tau in their grasp the
reduction of the other German colonies would be only a formal task of
seizure. Therefore the 27th of August, 1914, four days after the
declaration of war, saw a Japanese fleet blockading Tsing-tau and
Japanese transports carrying troops for landing expeditions in
cooperation with the warships.

Germany began the concentration of all available forces inside the
Tsing-tau fortifications on August 8, 1914. But she was able to gather
there when the siege began only 5,000 men, a handful compared with the
great force Japan could muster for the reduction of the fortress. The
garrison of peace times was augmented by reservists, who came from
treaty ports along the Chinese coast, from Japan, Siberia, and from
every part of the Far East near enough to enable German veterans to
reach the city before communication was cut off.

The crew of the Austrian cruiser _Kaiserin Elizabeth_, more than 300
men, who had left Tsing-tau by railroad before Austria decided to join
her ally in the Far East as well as in Europe, hurried back in small
groups and in civilian clothes to escape detection. Squads of the
Landsturm, the last reserve, middle-aged men who had left their
families and their business in all parts of China joined the ranks and
went to drilling in preparation for the hard fighting expected as soon
as the invading fleet passed the outer defenses of the harbor.
Altogether the defenders mustered