th a view to its modification on the ground of the disturbance of the
balance of power, and the menace to China which the occupation of Port
Arthur by the Japanese would involve. France and Germany accepted the
invitation, Great Britain declined. In the end the three powers brought
such pressure to bear on Japan that she gave up the whole of her
continental acquisitions, retaining only the island of Formosa. The
indemnity was on the other hand increased by H. taels 30,000,000. For
the time the integrity of China seemed to be preserved, and Russia,
France and Germany could pose as her friends. Evidence was, however,
soon forthcoming that Russia and France had not been disinterested in
rescuing Chinese territory from the Japanese grasp. Russia now obtained
the right to carry the Siberian railway across Chinese territory from
Stryetensk to Vladivostok, thus avoiding a long detour, besides giving a
grasp on northern Manchuria. France obtained, by a convention dated the
20th of June 1895, a rectification of frontier in the Mekong valley and
certain railway and mining rights in Kiang-si and Yun-nan. Both powers
obtained concessions of land at Hankow for the purposes of a settlement.
Russia was also said to have negotiated a secret treaty, frequently
described as the "Cassini Convention," but more probably signed by Li
Hung-Chang at Moscow, giving her the right in certain contingencies to
Port Arthur, which was to be refortified with Russian assistance. And by
way of further securing her hold, Russia guaranteed a 4% loan of
L15,000,000 issued in Paris to enable China to pay off the first
instalment of the Japanese indemnity.

Mekong valley dispute, 1895.

The convention between France and China of the 20th of June 1895 brought
China into sharp conflict with Great Britain. China, having by the Burma
convention of 1886 agreed to recognize British sovereignty over Burma,
her quondam feudatory, also agreed to a delimitation of boundaries at
the proper time. Effect was given to this last stipulation by a
subsequent convention concluded in London (1st of March 1894), which
traced the boundary line from the Shan states on the west as far as the
Mekong river on the east. In the Mekong valley there were two
semi-independent native territories over which suzerainty had been
claimed in times gone by both by the kings of Ava and by the Chinese
emperors. These territories were named Meng Lun and Kiang Hung--the
latter lying partly on