England, France and Germany, quickly following Russia's lead in the Ussuri strip, had already wrung privileges from her.

Circumstances might any day justify Russia's occupation of the entire peninsula.

She could afford to wait.
And while she waited she was not idle.
The post-road across Asia was no longer adequate for the larger plans developing in the East; so the construction of a railway was planned to span the distance between Moscow and Vladivostok.

At a point beyond Lake Baikal the river Amur makes a sudden detour, sweeping far toward the north before it again descends, thus enclosing a large bit of Manchuria in a form not unlike the State of Michigan.

Many miles of the projected road might be saved by crossing the diameter of this semi-circle and moving in a straight line to Vladivostok, across Chinese territory.