It is easy to conceive that the distracted man, grateful for protection, did at this time, as is supposed, consent to the purchase of lands and cutting of timber by the Russians on the Yalu, which the following year (1896) expanded into a grant of an extended tract, and became the centre of a large Russian industry in Northern Korea.

And it is significant that Admiral Alexieff was one of the prime movers in this project, which to Japan seemed to have a thinly veiled political purpose, and which became, in fact, one of the chief _casus belli_.
In 1899 the Tsar issued an order for the creation of a city on the Bay of Talien-Wan; and in two years Dalny stood in massive completeness, with docks and wharves and defences which had cost millions of dollars.
Millions more had been expended upon Port Arthur, and still more millions upon the railway binding Manchuria to Russia with bands of steel.

This did not look like temporary occupation; like pitching her tent for a passing emergency.

Still, in the frequent interchange of notes with the powers, there was never an acknowledgment that a permanent occupation was intended.

In displeasure at these repeated violations of solemn pledges the Western Powers held aloof; the United States and Great Britain, however, insistently declaring that the "open-door" policy must be maintained, _i.e._, that all nations must have equal industrial and commercial opportunities in Manchuria and Korea, and also that the integrity of China must be preserved.
In the hope of arriving at a peaceful adjustment of their differences, Japan made a proposition based upon mutual concessions.