23 May 1895, Friedrichsruh
The Russian seizure of Liaodong against jointly voiced guarantees that it would remain Chinese, and thus open to Western influence and trade, greatly embarrassed Prince Regent Albrecht who had assumed a higher profile in the joint intervention than his cautious foreign policy usually allowed. Though Germany would join the undignified scramble for Chinese territory to secure its own treaty port in Kiaochow, the perfidy of the move rankled with the Berlin establishment and is often quoted by historians as the beginning of the political rift between Germany and Russia. Though an apology was, of course, unthinkable, a visit by several members of German royal families to Japan in 1897 was widely considered as a conciliatory gesture. Relations with Japan greatly improved as a result, and the German policy of supporting Japanese ambitions would pay handsome dividends soon.
The headlines blared the debacle. “Russia Breaches Treaty!”, “Russia Seizes Chinese Land!” “Russian Annexation! Prince Regent Embarrassed!”. The Berliner Illustrierte even had a picture of Russian soldiers hoisting the flag over what they called Port Arthur. The Hamburgischer Correspondent was slightly more useful and less sensationalist. For one thing, their writers knew where Liaodong peninsula was. They even had a good understanding of Chinese affairs – in fact, though Bismarck would never have admitted as much, he learned a fair bit about the situation on the ground from them. In Berlin, of course, the fate of Chinese inhabitants of Liaodong peninsula mattered very little compared to the diplomatic embarrassment the act had inflicted in the foolish Prince Regent and his snivelling upstart chancellor Caprivi. When the Czar Nicholas had called on his support to prevent the Japanese from encroaching on the borders of his maritime province, Albrecht had hesitated at first. Both France and Britain had voiced reservations about the move, and he himself saw no reason to spend political capital on a part of the globe he was not invested in. However, when the British signalled that they were not going to block the move, the German government had decided to go support Russia in its intervention. As a result, Liaodong was to remain Chinese, and Japan receive an even heavier financial indemnity from defeated China. All had gone smoothly, the treaty had been signed and sealed, and then the Russians had walked all over it and seized Liaodong for themselves. Bismarck could only guess how badly this embarrassed Emperor Meiji, but he had a very keen understanding of how acutely it was felt in Postdam. He relished the discomfort of his enemies, certainly of his successor Caprivi, and lately he had begun to even count the Prince Regent among them. In this case – he wondered. Would studied silence leave a better impression, or should he write a letter to the editor? He asensed that Caprivi was wounded, and the publisher of his memoirs had assured the Prince that the coup de grace would be administered soon. Still, better to be thorough. He rose from his armchair and called for stationery and a sandwich.
The Russian seizure of Liaodong against jointly voiced guarantees that it would remain Chinese, and thus open to Western influence and trade, greatly embarrassed Prince Regent Albrecht who had assumed a higher profile in the joint intervention than his cautious foreign policy usually allowed. Though Germany would join the undignified scramble for Chinese territory to secure its own treaty port in Kiaochow, the perfidy of the move rankled with the Berlin establishment and is often quoted by historians as the beginning of the political rift between Germany and Russia. Though an apology was, of course, unthinkable, a visit by several members of German royal families to Japan in 1897 was widely considered as a conciliatory gesture. Relations with Japan greatly improved as a result, and the German policy of supporting Japanese ambitions would pay handsome dividends soon.