Note 181 — Chapter III · KIAO-CHAU

“Considering that there has never been any disagreement existing between China and Germany, and that the German Government came to the assistance of China in securing the evacuation of the Liao-tung Peninsula by the Japanese for which she has never been recompensed; and further, as England, France, and Russia have taken maritime ports in the East, and as Germany has no port as a rendezvous for her vessels and for a coaling station, her position is not equal to the other great Powers.”—The Tsung-li Yamên’s memorial to the Throne, translated in Mr. Denby’s dispatch of March 9, 1898 (U. S. 55th Congress, 3d Session, House Documents, vol. i, p. 189). The same sentiment may have prompted the Tsung-li Yamên to make the offers stated in the text.