She would accept the Russian economic status in Manchuria if Russia would recognize hers in Korea.
Russia absolutely refused to admit Japan's right to have anything whatever to say concerning Manchuria--the land which eight years before was hers by right of conquest, and from which Russia for her own purposes had ejected her.

Admiral Alexieff was Viceroy of the Eastern Provinces, and to him the Tsar confided the issues of peace or war.
Confident in her enormous weight and military prestige, Russia undoubtedly believed that the Japanese must in the end submit.

But after five months of fruitless negotiations the patience of the Government at Tokio was exhausted.

On Feb.

8, 1904, the Japanese fleet made a sudden descent upon Port Arthur.