ions of strict neutrality in
areas that formed, within Lung-kow, Lai-chau, and the neighbourhood of
Kiao-chau Bay, passage-ways essential to the belligerent troops. It was,
of course, incumbent upon the Powers involved to respect Chinese
property and administrative rights. Japan, therefore, was permitted to
make use of the main roads to transport an army to the rear of
Tsing-tao. The forces landed composed a division numbering 23,000, and
commanded by Lieutenant-General Mitsuomi Kamio. An advance-guard was
sent forward without delay, but soon found its way rendered impassable
by torrential floods which at this time swept down upon and devastated
the province of Shantung, bridges, roads, and even villages being
submerged and destroyed, with great loss of life, largely owing to
Chinese official incompetence. The Japanese, after covering 20
kilometres in two days, reached a stream so swollen that crossing was
impossible. The artillery had to return to Lung-kow. German diplomacy,
meanwhile, exasperated at its inability to prevent a Japanese landing,
had not been inactive.

[Sidenote: Chinese neutrality.]

[Sidenote: Rivalry of British and Japanese.]

[Sidenote: Japanese advance.]

The German and Austrian ministers at Peking, on hearing of the Japanese
landing, protested strongly. China, it was claimed, ought to have
forestalled and resisted the landing, but instead had deliberately
extended the war-zone in order to facilitate Japanese movements. She
would be held responsible for any injury to the German cause or
property. To this China replied that, if it was incumbent upon her to
prevent by force Japan operating in her territory, it was equally her
duty to prevent by force Germany fortifying and defending Tsing-tao.
China had endeavoured, indeed, but unsuccessfully, to preclude
belligerent operations in her territory: only after the Japanese
landing, when she was powerless to do otherwise, had she extended the
zone of war. As to the responsibility, she reiterated her previous
declaration. The baffled Germans fell back on threats: the right was
reserved to visit upon China dire consequences for her alleged breach of
neutrality. The incident, thrown into striking contrast with Germany's
offer to Belgium, marked the unscrupulousness of German diplomacy, but
stirred also many doubts among the foreign communities in China, in
which the British, allied as they were to the Japanese, formed a
predominating element. An anomaly