[
    {
        "id": 216437,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2003",
        "page_number": 196,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "146\n\nA contemporary comment in a western journal explained that ‘the Concert of Powers, that powerful instrument which Lord Salisbury compared to a steamroller, gravely assented to the theory of China's neutrality in principle, and did nothing else in practice. Japan's reply to the Russian charges was to cite a number of flagrant breaches of neutrality which the Russians themselves had committed. Japan, too, gravely warned China, and entered various solemn protests. These were not without effect, for by this stage of the war the Chinese were beginning, perhaps more alertly than most western nations, to be awake to the fact that the Japanese were the coming race.\"\n\nOne of Japan's protests to China was that ammunition for the Russian Army at Mukden was being transported there by way of Tientsin (Tianjin), and in one instance as many as three and a half million rounds were seized by Tientsin Customs while awaiting shipment. Peking took the only course open to it in telegraphing to local Chinese authorities that they must end these practices.\n\nA Russian breach of neutrality\n\nOn 4th October 1904 a body of Russian infantry of the 3rd Regiment of Sharpshooters, all wearing Chinese uniforms, attacked the Japanese on the road to Mukden. 'There had been a number of reports of Russian soldiers dressed in Chinese uniforms having approached Japanese troops and even attempted surprise attacks. It was also reported that the Russian Army was continuing to purchase an enormous number of Chinese uniforms. This was not only contrary to the rules of war but exposed innocent Chinese to danger owing to the impossibility of distinguishing at a distance between Russian soldiers and the real Chinese. As the Hague Convention stipulated that unlawful use of uniforms of the enemy, and the Chinese were not the enemy, the Russians deemed it a legal stratagem xüli\n\nAnother major breach of China's neutrality occurred in early January 1905 when Russian General Mistchenko determined to violate Chinese neutrality to get his army to Newchwang without danger to himself. A British correspondent’s description reads:\n\nThe Russians had no intention of playing the game fairly; the rules had been made for the Japanese and not for their own observance.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216438,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2003",
        "page_number": 197,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "147\n\nOn 8th January Mistchenko assembled his force near Sinminting and then pushed south through neutral territory, to Sanchaho, where he crossed the Liao, as he was behind the Japanese outpost line. On his way he came into collision with a force of 500 Hunhuses and inflicted heavy losses on them. On 10th January he crossed the Liao on the ice and rode towards Newchwang. Whereupon the small Japanese garrison fell back.\n\nGeneral Mistchenko vacillated and allowed the Japanese to return in strength, leaving Mistchenko the choice of surrendering or once more violating China's neutrality. He chose the latter but was attacked before he could retreat and was badly mauled before managing to get what was left of his force back to Mukden. There was no mention of any Chinese protest.\n\nThe Russian warships, Askold and Grosovoi\n\nThere were several instances of Russian warships taking refuge in Chinese waters, each settled after investigation, acrimony and promises by the belligerents.\n\nIn early August after a major engagement at sea the Russian cruiser, Askold xiv and the destroyer, Grosovoi having been badly damaged, sought refuge at Wusong, a port on the Yangzi at the mouth of the river leading to Shanghai, leading to an international dispute on the subject of the rights of belligerent vessels in neutral ports. It was evident that some considerable time would be required before the ships would be fit for sea again. The Chinese, urged on one hand to force the ships to leave port, and yet still too much frightened that any such action would be regarded by Russia as a hostile act, continued for some time to order the ships to withdraw on one day and to cancel the order on the next. The Japanese, compelled to watch the port and to detach cruisers for the purpose, increased their remonstrances, and at one stage it was by no means certain that they would have confined themselves to mere remonstrances. Had that been the case, the jealously preserved neutrality of the foreign powers would, indeed, have been in danger. Finally, on 1st September, the Russians put an end to the situation by ordering the disarmament of the vessels, to the great relief of the Chinese.\n\nIn late 1904 two Russian sailors from the Askold murdered a",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390",
        "rank": 0
    }
]