Apart from the alliance clause, the final agreement binds China
to pay 200,000,000 taels (L33,00000 in gold) to Japan within five years, Japan accepting payment in silver. China gives up all claim on Corea, cedes the Peninsula of Lian-tung up to the fortieth parallel, i e , Port Arthur and a small province, surrenders Formosa, including the Pescadores, and opens seven more ports up the great rivers—including, according to one account, Pekin—to the trade of all nations. It is pro- vided that foreigners may set up manufactories, and that the internal transit-duties shall not exceed 2 per cent., to be calcu- lated, as Germany believes, upon the original cost of the article at the port of export. That will give an advantage to Japan, which can manufacture very cheaply, and also, we suspect, to British India, which will be Japan's first serious rival in the struggle to clothe the Chinese. There is nothing in the published terms of the Treaty to raise a diplomatic fuss ; but of course any nation which thinks itself aggrieved has a right of protest, and Russia may take advantage of that right. There is some doubt, we should add, whether Liau-tung is ceded in perpetuity or for a term of years ; but Japan is not likely to go to the vast expense she must incur there, without, at all events, a very long lease. The Powers are more likely to demand stations for themselves among the islands, than to forbid the retention of Port Arthur, which, it must be remembered, is essential to Japanese control over Corea.
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